Artificial intelligence has moved from experiment to infrastructure in finance. The question facing investment professionals is no longer whether AI will change the industry, but whether their own process, their firm, and their portfolio are keeping pace. At the same time, digital assets have crossed a threshold of their own: stablecoins are now regulated, licensed, and settling real institutional volume, while the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is bringing money market funds, private credit, and other traditional instruments onto digital rails.
Hong Kong sits at the center of both stories. The city hosts some of Asia's most advanced AI-driven investment teams, and its Stablecoins Ordinance has made it one of the first jurisdictions worldwide to license fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers. Hong Kong is also an early mover in RWA tokenization, with regulated tokenized funds already in the market and a growing pipeline of institutional issuance. For investment professionals here, these are not abstract trends. They are reshaping how research is done, how portfolios are built, and where the next decade of returns will come from.
Why this Matters Now
- The four largest hyperscalers plan roughly $725 billion of capital expenditure in 2026, up 77% from last year. AI infrastructure is now one of the largest investment cycles in corporate history, and one of the most debated trades in public and private markets.
- The majority of asset managers globally are implementing AI in their investment process. The competitive gap is opening between firms that have moved past pilots and those still running them.
- AI agents are compressing multi-week research and operational workflows into hours, changing the economics of the investment firm itself.
- Stablecoins now exceed $300 billion in circulation and settled $7.2 trillion in February 2026 alone, surpassing the US ACH network for the first time. With Hong Kong's licensing regime in force and RWA tokenization moving from pilot to production, institutional adoption is a present-day reality.
This half-day symposium convenes a high-caliber lineup of senior practitioners from leading asset managers, hedge funds, global banks, technology firms, and digital asset institutions: portfolio managers generating alpha with AI, practitioners deploying AI agents inside real organizations, and the institutions putting stablecoins and tokenized RWAs to work. Sessions focus on what is actually working in production, with real numbers and real case studies, rather than vendor demonstrations.
Whether you want to know how leading funds are using AI across asset classes, how to evaluate the AI investment thesis from venture to public equities, how agentic workflows will change your own desk, or how far institutional adoption of digital assets and RWAs has actually come, this symposium is built for you.
Event Details
Date: 17 September 2026 (Thursday)
Time: 2:30 PM - 6:30 PM (reception starts at 2:00 PM)
Venue: 22/F, Prince’s Building, Central, Hong Kong
Language: English
Rundown
| 2:30 PM - 2:35 PM | Greetings and Housekeeping |
| 2:35 PM - 2:45 PM | Opening Remarks by Dr. Alvin Ho, CFA |
| 2:45 PM - 2:50 PM | Welcoming Remarks by PwC |
| 2:50 PM - 3:35 PM | Panel 1: The Alpha Machine: Investing With AI, and In It |
| 3:35 PM - 3:50 PM | Coffee Break |
| 3:50 PM - 4:35 PM | Panel 2: Agents at Work: Rebuilding Organizational Workflow |
| 4:35 PM - 5:20 PM | Panel 3: From Sandbox to Balance Sheet: Institutional Adoption of Digital Assets |
| 5:20 PM - 5:30 PM | Closing Remarks by David Ching, CFA |
| 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM | Post-event Networking |
Sponsors
PANEL 1: The Alpha Machine: Investing With AI, and In It
How are the best investment teams using AI to generate alpha across equities, credit, and private markets? And is AI itself still the trade of the decade, or a capex cycle running ahead of returns? This panel covers both sides: AI as a tool in the investment process, and AI as an investment thesis across venture, primary, and secondary markets.
PANEL 2: Panel 2: Agents at Work: Rebuilding Organizational Workflow
AI agents are moving beyond chat interfaces into real production workflows: screening deals, drafting research, running operations, serving clients. This panel examines how organizations are deploying agents today, what efficiency gains are actually being delivered, and what it takes to get from pilot to production, illustrated with live case studies.
PANEL 3: From Sandbox to Balance Sheet: Institutional Adoption of Digital Assets
Stablecoins are licensed, tokenized funds are live, and institutional money is moving on-chain. This panel cuts through the noise to assess where real adoption stands: which institutions are using stablecoins and tokenized RWAs in production, from money market funds to private credit, what the licensing regimes in Hong Kong and the US have changed, and what remains before digital rails become mainstream financial infrastructure.
Speakers
Opening Remarks
Dr. Alvin Ho, CFA
President
CFA Society Hong Kong
Dr. Alvin Ho is an experienced investment principal with a proven track record in private equity. While dedicating time to teaching at universities, he balances managing private investment portfolios and institutional LP investing with mentoring both start-ups and established companies. In addition, he serves as a board member for listed companies and NGOs, and is a member of investment committees for various funds and platforms. Previously the legal and executive representative for local currency funds incorporated in Beijing and Chengdu, he was the Head of China for a pan-regional private equity growth fund.
As President of the Society, Alvin spearheaded key initiatives to advance industry collaboration. He curated the Society’s 30th-anniversary publication, featuring insights from 30 distinguished industry experts, and launched the flagship ‘Presidential Moment’ Series, convening global luminaries including a Nobel Laureate, top strategists, authors, and C-Suite investment executives.
Alvin holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, along with master’s degrees from Tsinghua University and London Business School. He has authored three books in Chinese on the economics of sports, and served as chief editor of, and contributor to, RISE FROM CRISES, a publication of CFA Society Hong Kong.
Closing Remarks
David Ching, CFA
Vice President
CFA Society Hong Kong
David Ching is the Investment Director at Animoca Brands. A seasoned investor and business builder, he brings over two decades of experience spanning traditional finance and emerging technologies, with deep expertise and distinctive insights in artificial intelligence, digital assets, and energy transition.
David graduated from the University of Oxford with First Class Honours on a full scholarship, and is Honorary President of the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Hong Kong. Over his career, he has held senior roles including Chief Strategist and Portfolio Manager at leading financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Macquarie, and Polymer Capital. His exceptional track record has earned him multiple Best Analyst awards from Institutional Investor and recognition by StarMine as one of Asia’s top stock pickers.
David is a regular speaker and convener on AI adoption in financial services, agentic infrastructure, regulatory frameworks for digital assets, and the convergence of TradFi and Web3. He is committed to building the bridges — technical, regulatory, and human — that allow institutions to navigate this transition with clarity. He recently presented the same framework to a packed house at the FTAHK AI Agents Workshop co-hosted with Tencent Cloud.
David is Vice President of the CFA Society Hong Kong, and Founding Chairman of the Web3 & FinTech SubCommittee.