Pengana raises $150m for AI-focused LIT

Pengana Capital Group says it has already raised $150 million for a yet-to-list fund that targets private companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.

The cornerstone funding round raised $150 million, exceeding the initial target amount of $100 million. Pengana is targeting a maximum raise of $350 million.

The listed investment trust, which will be called AIX, invests primarily in large, privately held AI and AI-related businesses and holds between 12 to 20 companies.

Portfolio management has been delegated to US-based alternative asset manager GCM Grosvenor, which has about $127 billion in assets under management. GCM currently manages Pengana's Private Equity Trust (ASX: PE1).

AIX targets a seven-year lifespan, deploying capital over the first two years. After this, it will return capital and realised gains to investors when it exits underlying assets via listings, secondary sales or acquisitions.

The trust can potentially continue running after the seven-year period, in which the management fee will reduce to zero.

Target investments include Anthropic and OpenAI, companies the fund manager classifies as "foundation models", and Databricks and Perplexity, which it describes as AI-enabled products and platforms that directly deliver functionality.

Pengana chief executive Russel Pillemer said the fund has already contracted investments in ByteDance and Handshake.

"Many compelling AI and AI-related businesses remain private during their highest growth phases. By the time these companies reach public markets, a significant portion of their return potential may already have been captured by private investors. Investing in unlisted securities can provide earlier participation in that value creation," he said.

"AIX will allow Australian investors to access these AI companies, seeking to deliver long-term capital growth by targeting investments in non-publicly traded companies that are developing, enabling, or contributing to the adoption of artificial intelligence and related technologies."

AIX is expected to list on the ASX on July 2.

ASX-listed Pengana had $3.6 billion in assets under management at the end of March, down 9% from the end of December.