Wealthy Families Bet Big on Stocks, Especially AI Companies

The richest families in the world are shifting more of their money into the stock market — and they're betting heavily on artificial intelligence (AI).

This news comes from the CNBC Family Office Portfolio Tracker. A family office is basically a private company that manages the investments of a single very wealthy family. The tracker looks at the real portfolios (collections of investments) of hundreds of these families, together worth over $1.4 trillion.

In the second quarter (April–June), family offices increased their stock (shares of ownership in public companies) holdings while cutting back on other types of investments.

Here are the key numbers:

• Stocks rose to 37% of their portfolios, up from 34% — the biggest jump in 3-4 years
• Alternative investments (things like real estate, private companies, and private loans) fell to 46% from 49%
• Cash holdings dropped slightly, meaning they're putting money to work

Why the shift? Part of it is simply because the stock market did well. The S&P 500 (an index tracking 500 large U.S. companies) rose about 15% during the quarter, which naturally made their stock holdings grow. Meanwhile, private investments lost value — especially private credit (private lending funds), which had to lower how much their assets were worth.

Importantly, families chose not to sell their winning stocks to rebalance. That signals a long-term bullish (optimistic) view, largely driven by excitement around AI.

The most popular stocks among family offices were:

• Microsoft (owned by 77%)
• Amazon and Alphabet/Google (76%)
• Apple (70%)
• Nvidia (69%)

Looking ahead, experts say the next thing to watch is interest rates (the cost of borrowing money, set by central banks) and the bond market (where governments and companies borrow money), which are changing rapidly right now.

Bottom line: Even the world's wealthiest investors are leaning into stocks and the AI boom — despite worries that these investments might be overpriced.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/27/family-offices-making-bullish-bet-on-stocks-according-to-cnbc-tracker.html