After significantly outperforming our benchmarks in 2025, we began the year with a portfolio heavily allocated toward the AI supercycle that has been developing over the past several years. Even though nearly all major indices experienced meaningful declines during the first quarter, our Simian Recommended Portfolio was up 7.2%, while both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index declined more than 9%.

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The year began with strong momentum across our crypto, AI, and broader technology recommendations, although virtually all averages declined in Q1 due to macroeconomic concerns and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Throughout the volatility, we remained steadfast and unwavering bulls on technology, as we have been for the past 16 years. Our current portfolio of recommended names continues to be dominated by companies essential to the buildout of data centers, robotics, quantum computing, and the expansion of AI infrastructure, including memory, storage, security, and numerous other technology subsectors.

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We expect these trends to continue throughout the remainder of 2026 and well into 2027, accompanied by elevated volatility both within our sector and across the broader market. While we do not make macroeconomic or geopolitical forecasts and remain focused primarily on the technology sector, we are highly cognizant of rising global political tensions and the increasing probability that such developments could affect investor sentiment toward higher-beta stocks, particularly those within our coverage universe.

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The new administration’s policies surrounding tariffs, taxes, regulation, export restrictions on key technologies to China and other countries, and major changes affecting the EV and solar industries created substantial disruption across multiple segments of the technology sector throughout 2025 and early 2026. We expect that volatility and policy-driven uncertainty to persist through 2026 and 2027.

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This brings us back to our core investment philosophy: when it comes to leading technology companies, investors are often rewarded disproportionately by staying the course, adding to positions during periods of market uncertainty and turmoil, and opportunistically increasing exposure during volatile market conditions.

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Overall, Simian’s Recommended Portfolio gained 7.2% in Q1 2026, substantially outperforming the S&P 500’s 4.6% decline and significantly exceeding the performance of our true benchmarks: the S&P 500 Information Technology Index (-9.3%) and the S&P Global 1200 Information Technology Index (-6.7%).

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Our outlook for the remainder of 2026 should come as no surprise to our clients: we remain steadfast bulls. Whether in AI, Generative AI, Quantum Computing, Adaptive AI, Robotics, Machine Learning, Crypto/Blockchain, or core infrastructure technologies such as memory, storage, and security, we expect periods of accelerated growth, temporary slowdowns, re-accelerations, and occasional disruptions. These cycles will vary across industries and companies, but the broader long-term trend remains extremely favorable over the near, medium, and long term.

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Our broader view for 2026 and 2027 remains largely unchanged. While fluctuations in interest rates, economic activity, taxation, geopolitical conflicts, tariffs, and broader political risks will continue to create near-term volatility, we believe the long-term impact on the technology sector — especially for emerging, fast-growing, nimble companies as well as leading mega-cap platforms — will remain relatively muted.

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Accordingly, our portfolio construction will remain concentrated, with fewer than 20 positions, all maintaining significant exposure to AI, robotics, data center expansion, memory, storage, infrastructure, security, and next-generation hardware technologies. We also remain highly bullish on crypto. Despite recent selloffs and continued volatility, we continue to view the sector as one of the most compelling investment opportunities of the coming decade.

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For more than a decade, our view has remained consistent: the long-term prospects for technology and technology investing remain extraordinarily positive, and we expect outsized returns to continue over time. The strong performance of the sector over the past several years — including Q1 2026 — continues to reinforce that thesis.

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Our view on AI is even broader. While today’s versions of AI may still appear somewhat raw and, at times, overhyped, we believe this is the most transformative technology we have witnessed in four decades. In our view, AI will ultimately have a greater impact on society than personal computers, the internet, social media, and smartphones combined.

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While some investors continue to characterize AI as a near-term “bubble,” and despite the meaningful declines experienced by many AI-related companies during the second half of 2025 and early 2026, we believe we are still in the early stages of a multi-year supercycle. We expect adoption, monetization, and technological advancement to accelerate dramatically over the next two to three years. This trend could become even more pronounced if industry leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic eventually enter the public markets.

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Whether 2026 ultimately becomes another banner year for technology stocks or not, our fundamental approach to investing and stock selection remains unchanged. We continue to find significant opportunities in the current environment — ranging from emerging technologies to established industry leaders that have been overlooked despite increasingly attractive valuations — and we have rarely been more excited about the opportunities ahead.