Metro’s weekly column is for anyone looking for fresh ideas and insight into where they might invest their savings.
Our goal is to help you learn more about the things that matter when making a new investment.
We cover big themes such as global equities, the best of British companies, where to look if you’re a cautious investor and understanding risk and return.
From clean energy to artificial intelligence and big tech, different funds will come under the spotlight.
If there’s something specific you’d like us to cover, email sarah.davidson@metro.co.uk with your requests.
This week, we speak to Darius McDermott, managing director at investment research house FundCalibre and Chelsea Financial Services, about why he likes the Landseer Global Artificial Intelligence Fund.
Quickfire Profile
Fund name: Landseer Global Artificial Intelligence
Fund managers: Tim Day, Chris Ford
Chris Ford is head of growth equities at Landseer and co-manages the Global Artificial Intelligence fund. He began his career at Schroders before moving to Edinburgh to co-manage Aegon’s North American and Technology funds. He later joined Pictet and in 2015 launched the Global AI strategy at Smith & Williamson. He managed the strategy through Sanlam before moving with it to Landseer.
Tim Day is co-manager of the fund. He started his investment career at Robert Fleming in New York, managing US equity portfolios, before holding senior roles at Fleming Investment Management, Henderson Global Investors and Pictet Asset Management. He joined Smith & Williamson in 2015 to co-manage the Global AI strategy with Chris Ford, later following the strategy to Sanlam and then Landseer.
Strategy in one line:
A global equity fund that uses its own AI system to identify companies genuinely positioned to benefit from artificial intelligence
Ongoing charges: 0.82%
Five-year return: 77.3% (13/11/2020 – 13/11/2025, FE fundinfo)
Assets Under Management: £1.45billion
Top 10 holdings: Nvidia, Alphabet, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Microsoft, Tesla, Micron Technology, Origin Energy, Tencent, Coherent Corp, Meta Platforms.
Can you expand on this fund’s strategy and why you like it?
What sets this fund apart is its proprietary AI system, developed years before ChatGPT, which scans thousands of company filings for language that signals genuine, commercially meaningful AI adoption. While familiar tech giants appear in the top ten, the portfolio is far broader than the Magnificent Seven. Around half of the holdings sit in healthcare, consumer and industrial businesses where AI is quietly transforming efficiency and profitability. The result is a truly diversified way to access the AI revolution across the entire economy.
What type of retail investor might this appeal to and why?
Landseer is well suited to anyone who wants to complement a core global fund with a satellite holding focused on AI. Its broader sector exposure means investors can capture genuine AI-linked productivity gains without taking the full concentration risk of the US mega-cap complex.
What makes this fund stand out from the crowd?
Three things set this fund apart. First, it uses its own proprietary AI engine to identify opportunities. Second, the strategy launched back in 2017, long before the current AI hype cycle. That gives it one of the longest track records in the space and shows these managers were thinking years ahead – not simply jumping on the bandwagon. And third, it’s a genuinely global portfolio. Around 40% of the fund is invested outside the US – across Japan, Europe, the Middle East and Asia – where significant AI innovation is taking place but often overshadowed by the noise surrounding American mega-caps.
What sectors are you particularly keen on at the moment?
In our VT Chelsea Managed Funds, technology remains one of our largest long-term positions. But outside tech, we’re currently finding attractively valued opportunities in areas like emerging market equities and UK smaller companies.
How does the current economic environment affect your investment strategy?
We think we’re in a late-cycle environment. Valuations in many major markets, particularly the US, look stretched, and AI-related stocks have done a lot of the heavy lifting in global indices.
That doesn’t mean abandoning the US, but we are trimming into strength and recycling capital into areas where valuations are more appealing and where earnings growth is coming from genuine structural drivers rather than sentiment.
What should beginners or investors do when markets are volatile or they see performance fall?
The biggest mistake beginners make is panicking and selling at the bottom. Investing is all about time in the market, not timing the market. Staying invested, drip-feeding regularly, and letting compounding do the hard work is far more effective than reacting to every wobble.
Rather than tinkering every time markets move, give your portfolio an MOT every six to 12 months. Check your risk level is still right for your stage of life, trim any oversized positions, and make sure you’re not over-exposed to one style or region. Diversified multi-asset or absolute-return funds, some short-duration bonds and even a small cash buffer can help smooth the ride and make it easier to stay the course when volatility spikes.
Anything else investors considering this fund might be interested in?
Understand where this fund fits in your overall portfolio. Higher-octane areas such as technology, emerging markets or single-country funds should form part of the higher-risk “satellite” allocation, sized appropriately for your risk tolerance.
Most investors will still want a globally diversified or multi-asset fund as their core. Landseer can be a powerful complement to that core, especially for anyone who believes AI will reshape the global economy, but who doesn’t want all their exposure tied up in just a handful of US giants.
NB. All figures correct as of 31/10/2025