Tuesday, February 3 2026 16:11
Naira Badalian

Beyond the AI hype: Amundi- ACBA pivots toward European markets  despite U.S. stock surge

Beyond the AI hype: Amundi- ACBA pivots toward European markets  despite U.S. stock surge

ArmInfo.  Amundi-ACBA Asset Management believes that AI is currently overvalued and the ongoing boom cannot be a determining factor for increasing its investment  shares  in the US. Despite the turbulence in the European economy,  the company is inclined toward growing investments in that direction,  as stated by the company's Chief Investment Officer, Hrayr Aslanyan,  at a press conference on February 3, in response to a question from  ArmInfo.

Recently, US President Donald Trump reported on the social network  TruthSocial that the S&P 500 index, which includes shares of over 500  of the largest American companies, has exceeded 7,000 points for the  first time. The S&P 500 index includes 503 companies with the largest  market capitalization traded on US stock exchanges. According to the  Financial Times, American AI startups raised a record $150 billion in  2025 amid growing concerns about a decline in the hype surrounding  new technologies.

According to Aslanyan, the geography of Amundi-ACBA's investments is  constantly changing. However, a single statement from the US  president alone is not enough to decide whether to invest in the US  or redirect European investments toward American ones. The decision  will be based on various factors and specific analysis.

"In 2025, US markets "took the lead" due to the AI boom. However, the  company does not intend to revise its investment geography in favor  of the US. We believe this sector may currently be overvalued. It is  also possible that at this stage, a reorientation to other markets,  particularly European ones, would be more appropriate. That is, not  towards the United States, but from the United States to Europe,  where we see growth potential in terms of capital markets," he noted.

It should be noted that since the introduction of the system, there  have only been two managers of mandatory pension funds (MPFs) in  Armenia who received licenses from the Central Bank of Armenia in  2013 to manage pension funds: "Amundi-ACBA Asset Management" and  "C-Quadrat Ampega Asset Management Armenia." The shareholders of the  first are the French company Amundi, which manages over 2.32 trillion  euros in 35 countries, and the Armenian Acba Bank; the second is the  Austrian investment company C-Quadrat Investment AG and the German  Talanx Asset Management. By asset size (about 150 billion euros),  Talanx Asset Management GmbH is one of the largest insurance and  financial groups in Europe, represented in 150 countries.

As of December 2025, the number of participants in the three  Amundi-ACBA funds reached 558,000, with assets under management  reaching 750 billion drams. Since the introduction of the cumulative  pension system in Armenia, the average annual yield of pension  accounts managed by the company has reached 7.5-8.2%. Of the 750  billion drams in foreign investments, 20% went to North America (in  debt instruments and stocks in the US and Canada). 2% was invested in  the EU, 10% in the Eurozone, 3% in developing countries, and 1% in  Japan.

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