Mapping the AI value chain across private markets

AI has become the defining theme across every private markets conversation, but the most sophisticated investors are not simply chasing exposure. They are mapping where value actually sits across the AI stack, from energy and infrastructure through to applications, and deciding where credit risk makes more sense than equity risk, or where both are required. At SuperReturn Asia, we spoke to four leaders across multi-asset investing, infrastructure, venture and fund-of-funds about how they are approaching AI, where they see bottlenecks and why discipline matters more than conviction alone.

Mapping the AI value chain with Emmanuel Pitsilis, Partners Capital

As a multi-asset class investor, Partners Capital does not view AI as a single bet. Emmanuel Pitsilis breaks the opportunity into five distinct steps: upstream energy and natural resources, infrastructure such as data centres and chips, the frontier labs building the large language models, the applications layer, and finally the broader economic impact on productivity and employment. His warning is clear: without a deliberate strategy at each step, investors risk becoming an unintentional AI investor across private credit, infrastructure, real estate, private equity and venture all at once.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• Why private equity value creation is the only sustainable driver left, now that leverage and multiple expansion have run their course
• The five-step AI value chain and where the bottlenecks sit
• How to decide between credit risk and equity risk at each stage of that chain
• Why Partners Capital is prioritising middle market private equity, real assets, private credit and selective venture over the next 12 to 18 months
• The fragmented nature of Asia's buyout, growth and venture markets compared with the US

Why three infrastructure verticals are converging on AI with George Maltezos, BlackRock

For George Maltezos, AI is not a separate investment theme sitting alongside infrastructure. It is reshaping the asset class itself. Through BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners platform, he explains how three of the firm's four core infrastructure verticals, energy, digital infrastructure and water, are converging to meet the demands of artificial intelligence, with transportation as a secondary angle. His view is that investors need to look well beyond "a simple box with some servers" to understand what hyperscale AI infrastructure actually requires.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• How energy, water and digital infrastructure are converging around AI demand
• Why BlackRock can stay agnostic on which AI model or application wins by owning the infrastructure layer underneath
• The risk of a portfolio becoming inadvertently overexposed to a single AI thematic across public and private holdings
• How clients are asking for more disciplined portfolio construction across public and private markets
• BlackRock's focus for the next 12 to 18 months in the region

Disciplined venture investing in an AI-driven founder's market with Kelli Fontaine, Cendana Capital

Kelli Fontaine has spent her career using data to inform decisions in a venture market that is, by nature, driven by intuition. She explains how AI has intensified competition for access to the best founders, pushing graduation rates and reserve strategies in directions that would have looked unrecognisable five years ago. With eight to ten times more capital in venture than a decade ago, she argues that discipline, not conviction, is what will separate durable returns from write-offs.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• Why today's AI-driven venture market has become a founder's market
• How historical portfolio data is being used to rethink graduation rates and reserve allocation
• The growing role of secondaries in de-risking early-stage venture positions before IPO or M&A
• What Cendana looks for in managers beyond track record, including domain expertise and founder networks
• Why portfolio management and exit timing are becoming as important as sourcing and picking

Building AI infrastructure platforms between Asia and the GCC with Michael Lints, Golden Gate Ventures

Michael Lints describes a shift in how Middle East capital engages with technology, moving beyond fundraising toward building AI infrastructure platforms directly. He points to Humain in Saudi Arabia and KAI in Qatar as examples of sovereign-backed AI platforms designed to bring local and foreign companies together to build AI capability within the region, alongside growing two-way capital flows between Asia and the GCC.

Watch the interview to learn about:

• How Saudi Arabia and Qatar are building their own AI infrastructure platforms rather than only investing in them
• The two-way capital flow developing between Singapore, the GCC and Central Asia
• Why AI, quantum computing, biotech and photonics are emerging as shared frontier technology interests across the region
• The global fight for engineering and leadership talent in frontier technology markets
• Golden Gate Ventures' focus for the next 12 to 18 months as it expands its regional footprint