By Alex Gluyas
A record year for Wilson Asset Management’s active listed investment company largely came down to one crucial decision in February – going to cash.
Portfolio manager Shaun Weick was worried at the start of the year that the emergence of agentic artificial intelligence would start to disrupt ASX-listed software businesses. Then America attacked Iran in late February, which threatened to halt the dazzling rally in gold stocks that made up nearly a quarter of WAM Active’s portfolio.
So Weick rapidly sold down any stock that could be perceived as a so-called AI loser, and got rid of most of his gold exposure during February. He then built up a cash pile worth around 35 per cent of the fund as he weighed the severity of the spike in energy prices caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Markets move so quickly these days with the level of money run by quantitative firms and within ETFs due to the rise of the retail investor,” Weick said. “So the sell-offs are so sharp now, but the bounce backs can be just as fast.”
Once he realised that oil prices weren’t heading towards catastrophic levels, the money manager aggressively deployed the mountain of cash – slashing the pile from 35 per cent of the portfolio to 5 per cent within a matter of days – into companies benefiting from the AI boom.
That helped WAM Active’s investment portfolio, which manages about $185 million, return 75.5 per cent in the 2026 financial year that smashed the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by nearly 70 per cent. It was the fund’s best year since inception in 2008.
One of the biggest drivers of performance has been the portfolio’s 4 per cent position in neocloud Firmus Technologies, which WAM is still valuing at $145 a share. That is despite Firmus selling shares at $230 apiece in its latest equity raising, which implied a valuation of $15.5 billion.
Weick expects that figure to keep ballooning ahead of Firmus’ hotly anticipated float later this year.
“I can see a scenario where the valuation comes in at $50 billion-plus quite easily,” he said. “It could list at $1000 a share on our metrics, but I’d be comfortable saying it will be at least $500 a share.”
Weick has now positioned the fund so it has exposure to every stage of the global build out of AI and its supply chain.
That includes investing in companies that should benefit from the diversification away from China such as rare earths stocks Lindian Resources – WAM’s largest position – and Viridis Mining, which have rocketed 715 per cent and 403 per cent respectively over the past year.
WAM has also ridden the rebound in lithium markets through Core Lithium and Liontown Resources, and the rally in copper via Cobre Resources and Solstice Minerals.
And they’ve ramped up their exposure to the so-called picks-and-shovels companies that are powering the rapid expansion of Australia’s digital infrastructure. This includes electrical services stocks Southern Cross Electrical Engineering and GenusPlus, and construction materials, equipment and services provider Maas Group.
Weick’s also particularly bullish on healthcare companies that are leveraging AI to deliver improved hospital and patient outcomes such as medical technology stocks Artrya and EchoIQ, which have both surged more than 500 per cent over the past year.
“We see an increasing need for the adoption of AI within the healthcare space, so that’s probably one of the biggest opportunities we see globally,” Weick said. “Those businesses have very strong runways and are penetrating the US market.”
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