BMC Global Technology April 2026

The strongest contributors to the fund's performance in April were AMD, Intel, and Mediatek, while the weakest were Spotify, Servicenow, and Netflix. 

During April, we saw the results of the massive recovery we mentioned in our previous newsletter. We wrote last month that valuations in the tech arena had become cheap and that the trough had likely been reached. Thanks to our portfolio of world-leading tech companies, combined with a de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, our fund's returns rose by 18.16% during the month. Although there are few signs that the conflict will be resolved, there is little indication of its escalating either, something the markets have taken positively. 

Although semiconductors are an ever-greater geopolitical power factor globally, we can still see the massive influence that oil has on the global economy. There are two factors that proved too much for Trump: US interest rates and an oil price surpassing USD 110 per barrel. 

Hyperscalers on sale

Last month, we wrote about how cheap the hyperscalers have become. For example, Microsoft has traded at a P/E of 17x at its lowest, while Amazon trades at a multiple lower than Telia. Given this and our view that growth in their cloud services will remain robust in the coming quarters, we decided to increase our weightings in Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon during the month. At the end of April, these companies reported, showing an acceleration in growth for cloud services and bolstered margins. Cloud services grew by 63% for Alphabet, 39% for Microsoft, and 28% for Amazon.  

During their conference calls, all the hyperscalers took the opportunity to send clear signals to Nvidia. They are now accelerating their internal development of proprietary chips (ASICs) to reduce their dependence on Nvidia and to save costs. These chips are now starting to challenge Nvidia and its near-monopoly on AI chips. 

Intel's resurrection, a strained CPU market, and a new winner in AI chips  

The two best contributors to returns for the month were AMD and Intel, which together dominate the CPU market for data centers. AMD has picked up because more CPUs are being used as AI transitions from training to inference and agentic AI, which has also prompted prices for these chips to increase massively. Intel benefits from the same trend and from its latest report, which saw figures far surpassing expectations as the new CEO has started setting the company back on track. Elon Musk has also shown interest in using Intel's technology in his future Terrafab in the US. The Intel share rose 114% during April. We remain positive on Intel, especially if external customers are also mentioned in connection with chip manufacturing. 

The third-largest contributor to the fund's April returns was Mediatek, which is a Taiwanese semiconductor company. Like Broadcom, Mediatek designs AI chips for Google (TPUs) that are cheaper and more effective than Nvidia's GPUs. The company released a good report last week in which it raised its guidance for AI chips and hiked expectations for the coming year. 

Key market events and trends

MSCI World rose 9% in USD during April, its best monthly return since November 2022. The conflict in the Middle East contributed to a moderate pick-up in the oil price, but the bond and equity markets largely chose to ignore the geopolitical tumult. 

Higher energy costs are likely to have an impact on inflation, burden economic activity, and weaken the already fragile consumer sentiment. Regardless, the markets chose to focus elsewhere. Consumers hold record-large savings that can be channeled to some extent into the equity markets.

The build-up of AI infrastructure continues apace and is accelerating, with semiconductors still the primary beneficiary of this expansion phase. In 2022, industry analysts predicted that the semiconductor market would reach annual revenues of USD 1,000bn by 2030. It now appears this level will be reached this year, with continued strong growth in 2027 before a slower pace is expected in 2028.

Company results corroborate this positive scenario. S&P 500 companies' profits for Q1 2026 were up by 28%, which was double the 14% expected at the start of the year. In Europe, Stoxx 600 companies saw profit growth of 7%, with cyclical consumption proving the most prominent factor. The automotive sector has recovered from its weak 2025, although this was cyclical rather than structural. European industry—to which our fund has good exposure—is seeing a more sustainable growth trend.

Despite the strong share price movements, valuations are attractive. Based on a forward-looking P/E of 18.5x for MSCI ACWI, forecasted profit growth of 28% in the USA, and the accelerating AI-driven revenues, the market is far from overvalued.

Portfolio changes

During April, we bought into three new holdings, but sold none. Our fund's new holdings are Amphenol, TD Synnex, and Eaton.   

The fund's positioning

At present, the fund comprises 42 companies exposed to a range of sectors and geographies, with companies chosen on their own merits. The total portfolio still has a high forecasted profit growth of 27% for the coming year. We believe a concentrated but also diversified, actively managed small cap fund focused on stockpicking has all the prerequisites to deliver great returns to its unitholders over time. 

*MSCI AC World NTR $ in EUR