OTPP's CEO Talks Public vs Privates, AI and Volatility at Davos 2026

Layan Odeh of Bloomberg reports Ontario Teachers’ reroutes some cash into public markets: 

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan chief executive Jo Taylor said that the pension is “warehousing” capital in public markets after selling several assets within its private market portfolio last year.

The pension plan “sold some private equity assets” and “our plan is to reinvest that capital,” Taylor said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Davos. “We are really just warehousing it until we know where we want to redeploy it.”

Ontario Teachers’ struck deals to sell some assets last year, including its stakes in airports in Copenhagen and Brussels, as well as three airports in the United Kingdom. The pension plan also agreed to sell its majority stake in India’s Sahyadri Hospitals Group.

The pension plan, which manages $269.6 billion of assets, reduced its exposure to the United States dollar and treasuries in the first quarter of last year, Taylor said, citing the “risk of a deflationary dollar.”

But as the pension plan shifted to “benign” but liquid markets, OTPP’s equity weighting stayed tilted toward the U.S.

“The U.S. is still 30 per cent, 35 per cent of our portfolio,” Taylor said. “It will be an important territory for further capital.”

In recent days, some European pension plans said that they’re cutting their exposure to the U.S. dollar amid concerns that the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump have created credit risks too big to ignore.

AkademikerPension, a Danish pension fund that manages around US$25 billion of savings, said it’s planning to exit U.S. Treasuries by the end of the month. Swedish pension fund Alecta said it already sold most of its U.S. Treasuries since early last year, citing the unpredictability of U.S. policy, budget deficits and national debt. 

Alright, I had a chance to listen to Jo Taylor's interviews at Davos last week, one with Bloomberg and one with CNBC.

Jo is always on point and very careful when he speaks, here are my quick bullet points but take the time to watch both interviews below.

• They cut exposure to the US dollar and Treasuries in Q1 2025 because they were a bit overexposed but he added: "The US is always roughly 30% to 35% of their portfolio -- it's 30% at the moment -- and it will always be an important territory fro us for further capital."
• They cut their dollar and treasury exposure in Q1 2025 because they saw deflationary risk to the dollar and kept it at that level going into 2026.
• They had important realizations last year in private markets particularly when they sold five airports in Europe and parked the money in "benign, liquid public markets" mostly in the US. 
• Nonetheless, private markets is a "hugely successful part of their business" and a "core activity" and Jo specified they are "not asset collectors", they acquire companies, make them more successful and if someone comes along to buy them and give them a good offer, then they will tend to "monetize them."
• So, in 2025, their biggest realizations were in airports and some private equity assets but their plan is to reinvest that capital. "Putting that money into liquid form in public liquid markets is we're really just warehousing it till we know where we want to redeploy it given our all-weather portfolio."
• On AI, Jo said they're not sure "the larger businesses will automatically win over time" so they're being careful and selective on where they invest. More importantly, they're looking at how AI impacts their existing portfolio of companies they own. "How do we enable them so they use AI to their advantage?" and "how we use AI to make better investment choices given the data we have?" 
• He said they own stakes in Anthropic and SpaceX and the latter has been a "fabulous investment" and said the company was "executing" on all levels and hitting its mark.
• Interestingly, toward the end of the Bloomberg interview, he said IPOs are not always the best solution because disclosed of a listed company is onerous and sometimes it makes sense to stay private for longer. 
• On the CNBC interview, Jo hones in on how Teachers' plans for the long term since their liabilities go out 50-60 years but also want to capitalize on short-term volatility where they see opportunities.  "When markets get really choppy, you want to be brave enough to look for good opportunities particularly on the investment side."
• He said last year they were  more "sellers of assets" and this year they're trying to correct that as "you don't want too much vintage year risk in what could turn out to be a wonderful year in investing." He said from his own experience, when markets are volatile, it's a great time to buy.\
• He said there has already been an equity correction is private equity and the challenge is in a world of tariffs how do you look at a business to try to understand its future growth.  So a business can look good when you buy it but will that be maintained and also if it's "a business that does a lot of M&A after you (acquire), then that looks more uncertain."
• He stressed you need to "know what you own" and they do direct investing as well as work with partners and do their own due diligence.
• They will be selling and buying assets again this year, and sold an oil and gas business earlier this year.
• He said they've done well investing in technology, financial services and industrials but as they look forward they're asking the question "will everyone win on AI?' and "which are the areas where you can see good growth and technology has the upper hand". He said one area where they are uncertain is in healthcare where "AI is speeding up some of the discovery and value creation."
• Jo said they have a good exposure to AI and "Teachers' Venture Growth made a very good return last year of over 30%." 
• They want to examine where AI disrupts their portfolio and where it can help them add value.

Alright, take the time to watch both interviews, Jo Taylor is always on point and very precise with is comments.]

Below, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan President & CEO Jo Taylor says the pension has cut exposure to US Dollar and Treasuries. He speaks to BTV's Jonathan Ferro, Lisa Abramowicz and Annmarie Hordern on the sidelines of the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Also, Jo Taylor, CEO and president of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), tells CNBC’s Dan Murphy in Davos that he’s closely watching geopolitical spillovers in financial markets. While volatility should be seen as a buying opportunity, Taylor emphasizes investors must “know what you own” during uncertain times.