Know What You Own: Joe Amato on the AI Rally, Mega-Cap IPOs, and the Hidden Risk in Passive

US equities have proven remarkably resilient this year. Despite the Middle East conflict, energy price pressures, and an uneven global backdrop, the market has powered higher on AI enthusiasm and broad-based earnings growth. But beneath the headline numbers, the questions that matter most are about durability, valuations, and what investors actually own.

On this episode of Disruptive Forces, host Anu Rajakumar sits down with Joe Amato, President and Chief Investment Officer for Equities at Neuberger, who brings decades of experience navigating market cycles. Drawing on his firm-wide vantage point, Joe shares how he's thinking about the state of the market and where the real opportunities and risks lie. Together, they discuss:

Why this earnings-driven bull market is finally broadening beyond technology, and how a less energy-intensive economy has blunted oil shocks Where the market may be ahead of itself on AI, and why the opportunity is shifting from the enablers to the adopters A grounded, optimistic take on AI and the labor market — and the jobs we can't yet imagine Why a coming wave of mega-cap IPOs could push technology past 50% of the S&P 500, and what that means for passive investors Where Joe sees opportunity and caution in the second half of 2026, including his conviction on US and Japanese equities

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