Shares in chipmaker Nvidia had risen 169 per cent since the start of the year to 9 June and hit the news at the end of May when a brief share price spike valued the company at more than US$1 trillion.
This was prompted by its announcement that it was benefiting from wave of demand for its chips and hardware to use in AI platforms like ChatGPT.
In a monthly update for the Global Growth Fund, Munro said: “AI was the big story of the month, which was largely driven by the quarterly earnings report of Nvidia. The stock rose over 20 per cent on the day of reporting, putting it close to USD $1 trillion in market capitalisation.”
Nvidia was a 5 per cent weighting in the $1.4 billion fund, placing it among its top holdings, and the firm said it contributed 112 bps during May.
The Nvidia spike also made news as ARK Invest fund manager, Cathie Wood, sold down of her stake late last year. The fund previously owned 1.3 million shares last October, but that had dwindled down to around 390,000 shares, meaning Wood missed out massive gains from the spike.
Explaining its choice to invest in Nvidia, the firm wrote earlier this year how the technology firm was a “critical component” in the AI race.
“Nvidia, who design the fastest and most powerful semiconductors in the world, reinforced their position as a critical component in the AI race,” the firm said.
“At their GTC (GPU Technology Conference), Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, proclaimed that the OpenAI ChatGPT software revelation was AI’s ‘iPhone moment’, essentially describing the inflection in demand from the consumer adopting a new technology.
“The company revealed two new chips, one designed to power large language models which ChatGPT relies on, and one designed to power AI video. At their earnings release in February and at the GTC event, Nvidia acknowledged the acceleration in demand for their chips because of the AI phenomenon.”
The Munro Global Growth Fund returned 4.6 per cent during May and had returned 5.7 per cent over the last 12 months.
