Rajiv Jain, who a year ago declared the AI boom a "dot-com bubble on steroids," has abruptly reversed course.

Jain, who spent a decade building GQG Partners into a $150 billion investment powerhouse, has been accumulating tech stocks since July — a sector he had previously almost entirely avoided — and accelerated his buying last month.

This pivot underscores the steep cost of maintaining a bearish stance as the relentless rally in AI-themed stocks has added trillions of dollars in market value to global equities.

The prominent Fort Lauderdale-based fund manager made his sudden turn after 18 months of pain. His pessimistic view on AI caused his funds to lag peers, eroded his long-term outperformance advantage, and prompted investors to withdraw $36 billion from his funds since mid-2025, sending GQG's share price tumbling to a record low.

According to a portfolio update published on the company's website earlier this month, the technology allocation in GQG's emerging markets fund more than tripled in August to approximately 35%, essentially erasing its previous significant underweight.

Tech companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics now account for 28% of GQG's flagship international equity fund, surging from just 5.4% in July, putting the fund in an overweight position on technology stocks.

To fund this massive reallocation, Jain reduced some of his large positions elsewhere, including previously significant overweight bets on Brazilian and Indian stocks. Brazilian investors said the scale of his selling even exacerbated declines in some Brazilian shares.

Jain is known for being bold and fond of concentrated bets. On an earnings call last month, he said he changed his mind due to improved valuation conditions, stronger computing power demand, and recovering graphics processor prices.

"We clearly underestimated some things," Jain told analysts.