BetaShares Australian Technology ETF (ASX: ATEC) $20.50

The Budget was taken very negatively in terms of AI and tech development, the biggest transformation and opportunity of our generation. Google alone is estimated to be spending 500x times more on AI than the Australian government, and while the government isn’t a corporation in search of profit, it should be doing everything in its power to attract such investment and R&D to our shores, not effectively discourage it.

The BetaShares Australian Technology ETF (ATEC) offers exposure to Australia’s leading tech and platform businesses, currently with 45 holdings, whose performance has been simply awful since late 2025, with the ATEC ETF down ~21% year-to-date, although it might surprise some members to know that its yielded more than 3% over the last 12-months.

The ETF has plunged over 40%, driven primarily by fears around “AI Disruption” as opposed to the more traditional headwind of rising interest rates, which are also weighing on growth stocks. The massive valuation compression feels overdone to MM, with plenty of the stocks in the ETF likely to be outright beneficiaries of AI, although it may take some time for investors to be convinced, especially following a Budget that did little to support innovation in Australia.

• We like this ATEC for performance reversion through 2026, but in the short-term, following this week’s weakness, a retest of $18 cannot be ruled out.