Research firm declares ‘end of the AI trade as we know it’ — and Asian tech stocks reflect the shift

The AI trade is entering a different phase, according to one research service, which argues that the easy gains from broad exposure to artificial intelligence are largely behind us. With absolute value now much harder to find, the firm suggests investors must frame AI bets on a longer-term and more speculative basis — and that the more productive exercise is searching for relative value within the sector rather than treating AI as a single, uniform trade.

Asian technology stocks are said to reflect that shift, as market participants begin to differentiate between companies rather than buying the theme wholesale. The implication is a move away from a rising-tide dynamic toward a stock-specific environment, where fundamentals, positioning and valuation differences within the sector matter more.

What to watch is whether this differentiation persists. Relative-value approaches depend on dispersion — meaningful gaps in valuation and prospects between companies — so the key question is whether those gaps widen or compress in the months ahead. For observers, the development is less a verdict on AI's long-term importance than a signal that the market's way of pricing it may be maturing.