ONE wonders if there is a real cause of concern till the 18.5 million Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members as of 1H 2026 (of which 10.6 million are active members) should red flag the retirement fund over its seemingly ‘excessive’ exposure in the US equity market.
Or should EPF contributors just sit back, relax and leave it to the wisdom of fund managers to grow their old age savings by accepting any setback in the process as merely part and parcel of stock market risk that every investor has to endure.
This is particularly so in the Nasdaq market which is deemed the world’s largest stock exchange which holds about US$45.12 tril in domestic market capitalisation as of September 2026.
As per EPF 2Q 2026 US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form 13F filing shared by finfluencer Nashreen Shah (@nashreenshah) on Threads, “EPF has approximately US$17.42 bil (around RM71 bil) in disclosed US-listed stock holding”.
Its major positions include:
- Microsoft = US$1.39 bil
- Nvidia = US$1.37 bil
- Micron = US$1.01 bil
- Alphabet (Google) – US$963 mil
- Broadcom – US$814 mil
- Meta – US$702 mil
Notably all eyes are on Nvidia which happens to be EPF’s second largest US investment at US$1,37 bil amid the Jensen Huang saga given the chip maker which spent most of 2026 as the world’s most valuable company has reportedly suffered its longest weekly losing streak since 2012 as market value sinks by US$1.7 tril.
Editor’s Note: Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and led it for 33 years, resigned on Thursday (Nov 12) after two separate extramarital affairs – one with an alleged Chinese spy and the other with an employee – were made public.
The board named finance chief Colette Kress as interim CEO while it conducts a search for a full-time successor.
At a glance, EPF savers can sigh relief in that the pension fund’s RM71 bil Nvidia holding is just a tiny fraction of EPF’s entire asset worth RM1.54 tri,
Wan Saiful rings alarm bell
However, beyond Nvidia, US tech stocks may not universally be at all-time high volatility levels compared to historical meltdowns like the 2000 dot-com crash or the 2008 financial crisis but they are nevertheless experiencing intense, sharp turbulence at this current juncture.
The volatility can be attributed to:
- AI spending & debt concerns: Investors are questioning whether massive capital expenditures on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure will generate enough return on investment.
- Leadership shocks: Major shocks such as Nvidia’s volatility triggered by executive transitions have wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value in single-week spans.
- Extreme market concentration: Because a tiny number of mega-cap tech and “Magnificent Seven” companies drive a huge portion of benchmark indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, any stumble by just a few firms causes outsized swings across the market.
- Political & macro pressures: Sweeping US mid-term election outcomes, regulatory fears around data canters and shifting Federal Reserve rate expectations have accelerated sector rotations out of tech and into defensive stocks
Back home, concerns of EPF contributors towards Nvidia’s outlook is not without basis especially after opposition lawmaker Wan Saiful Wan Jan expressed “serious view” over EPF’s RM5.6 bil investment in the American tech giant.
The Wawasan vice-president has demanded that the retirement fund be transparent over the actual risk being borne by EPF contributors amid the Nvidia leadership controversy
“Although the EPF stake in Nvidia is small compared to the EPF assets worth RM1.54 tril, the contributors have the right to know if the current situation affects their contributions and more importantly, how this risk is managed,” the Tasek Gelugor MP penned on Threads.
I want KWSP to explain the current holding value in Nvidia; the original stock purchase price, and whether there are any losses today.
KWSP also needs to explain how the risks of rising and falling in technology stocks and geopolitical developments are taken into account in its investment decisions.
Moreover, Wan Saiful further stressed that the Nvidia controversy has also affected market sentiment towards Bursa Malaysia listed companies with interests in the data centre and artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.
“What steps is the government taking to ensure that this situation does not affect the confidence of international investors and the prospects of the country’s data centre industry?” he wanted to know.
Hopefully, if there is any investment setback faced by EPF with regard to Nvidia or any of its Nasdaq stock holdings, this is just a paper loss or “paper value” fluctuations rather than locked-in losses given long-term institutional investors typically evaluate positions across multi-year cycles rather than days– Nov 15, 2026
Main image credit: Fox Business
