Key Takeaways
- • Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan cut its US dollar and US Treasury exposure in Q1 2025, with CEO Jo Taylor saying the fund had been over-exposed to both and saw greater risk of deflationary data.
- • Ontario Teachers' monetized a series of private holdings in 2025, most notably the sale of its five-airport portfolio in and around Europe, and has temporarily parked the proceeds in liquid public markets, mainly in the US.
- • Taylor said the capital is being "warehoused" until the fund identifies where to redeploy it, and that private markets remain "still a very much a core activity."
- • The fund is taking a selective, cautious approach to AI, citing SpaceX as a "fabulous investment" and Anthropic as an "interesting AI investment."
- • Taylor positioned the fund as long-term patient capital offering companies an alternative to an IPO, avoiding public-listing disclosure obligations.
Summary
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has trimmed its exposure to the US dollar and US Treasuries while keeping the United States as a core market, according to remarks by President and CEO Jo Taylor in a Bloomberg Television interview at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos. Taylor said the fund believed it was "a little over exposed to the dollar and actually, probably a little over exposed to US treasuries," and cut both in Q1 last year after seeing "more risk of a deflationary data."
The reduction coincided with the monetization of a series of private holdings. Taylor identified the largest realization as the sale of the fund's "airport portfolio of five airports in and around Europe," alongside the disposal of several private equity assets. Proceeds have been temporarily placed in liquid securities, mainly public markets, which Taylor said tends to produce a strong US weighting. He stressed this is a holding pattern: "our plan is to reinvest that capital" and the fund is "really just warehousing it, so we know where we want to redeploy it."
Taylor said private markets remain central to the strategy, describing them as "a hugely successful part of our business." He emphasized that the fund is "not asset collectors," aiming instead to acquire companies, build them, and monetize them when offered an attractive price. He characterized the portfolio as resilient in difficult conditions, saying it "stood up really well" to recent challenges.
On artificial intelligence, Taylor said the fund is "trying, therefore, to be careful, selective," acknowledging that "not sure every AI business is going to be successful" and that larger businesses are not automatically the winners. He identified a priority of examining how AI affects existing portfolio companies and how those companies can use AI to become advantaged rather than disadvantaged. He called Anthropic "an interesting AI investment" and said "SpaceX has been a fabulous investment for us," describing SpaceX as "the dominant business in space at the moment." He downplayed market-capitalization hype around the company.
Taylor also said the fund has held "lots of really interesting conversations with companies that [see it as] an alternative to an IPO," positioning Ontario Teachers' as a source of long-term patient capital that allows companies to grow without immediately facing "all the issues around disclosure" that come with a public listing.
The reduction coincided with the monetization of a series of private holdings. Taylor identified the largest realization as the sale of the fund's "airport portfolio of five airports in and around Europe," alongside the disposal of several private equity assets. Proceeds have been temporarily placed in liquid securities, mainly public markets, which Taylor said tends to produce a strong US weighting. He stressed this is a holding pattern: "our plan is to reinvest that capital" and the fund is "really just warehousing it, so we know where we want to redeploy it."
Taylor said private markets remain central to the strategy, describing them as "a hugely successful part of our business." He emphasized that the fund is "not asset collectors," aiming instead to acquire companies, build them, and monetize them when offered an attractive price. He characterized the portfolio as resilient in difficult conditions, saying it "stood up really well" to recent challenges.
On artificial intelligence, Taylor said the fund is "trying, therefore, to be careful, selective," acknowledging that "not sure every AI business is going to be successful" and that larger businesses are not automatically the winners. He identified a priority of examining how AI affects existing portfolio companies and how those companies can use AI to become advantaged rather than disadvantaged. He called Anthropic "an interesting AI investment" and said "SpaceX has been a fabulous investment for us," describing SpaceX as "the dominant business in space at the moment." He downplayed market-capitalization hype around the company.
Taylor also said the fund has held "lots of really interesting conversations with companies that [see it as] an alternative to an IPO," positioning Ontario Teachers' as a source of long-term patient capital that allows companies to grow without immediately facing "all the issues around disclosure" that come with a public listing.
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