Eric Wong has seen plenty of market cycles. The founder of Stillpoint Investments cut his teeth during the global financial crisis, working for legendary hedge fund manager John Griffin at Blue Ridge Capital, himself a protégé of the great Julian Robertson of Tiger Management.

Now Wong is betting big on China. His Greater China equity fund is capitalising on what he sees as a once-in-a-decade opportunity as Chinese tech stocks surge from bargain valuation levels.

“China’s markets continue to trade at a meaningful discount to the S&P,” Wong says. “It’s trading at a PE ratio of 12 to 13 times, whereas the US is approaching the mid-20s. From a cash flow yield perspective, China’s trading at seven-plus per cent and the US is at slightly less than three per cent.”

“You almost are able to get a 50 per cent discount on the broader market.”

Wong spent 11 years at Blue Ridge Capital, where Griffin built a track record of 15.4 per cent annual returns over two decades. Griffin’s influence on Wong went beyond just investing.

“His influence on me has been holistic in so many different ways, beyond just investing — thinking about life and wellness and how that actually enhances how we think about the investment landscape,” Wong tells The Australian.

The experience shaped Wong’s approach at Stillpoint, which he founded in 2022.

Like his mentor, Wong is a generalist who goes where the opportunities are richest.

Currently, that’s artificial intelligence infrastructure in China. The numbers are staggering.

“What we’re seeing happening in China is the hyperscalers, like the ByteDances and the Alibabas, are actually expanding their AI infrastructure capital expenditure dramatically,” Wong says.

“This year, the broader capex is going up by 60 per cent year-on-year.”

These data centre companies are trading at just 12 to 13 times EBITDA, compared to their global peers at well above 20 times.

The geopolitical headlines around chip bans have also created opportunities.

“The news around the chip bans will create uncertainty from market perception in terms of how sustainable this growth is,” he says. “But, from our perspective, it’s more around the matter of which chips they use. They will still need the data centres.”

Wong’s second major theme is precision manufacturing. Companies operating in the space help expand manufacturing capacity outside China as supply chains reshape in an increasingly multipolar world.

“These are businesses that are actually helping expand manufacturing capacity in markets outside of China,” he says. “When you think about the reshaping of what manufacturing looks like in a more de-globalised world, these businesses are actually in a position to benefit during this geopolitical tension.”

These companies trade at single-digit price-to-earnings multiples and pay dividend yields of eight to nine per cent. His conviction comes from seeing China’s technological advancement first-hand during his frequent visits. While based in New York City, Wong spends about a third of his time in China.

The technology integration into daily life is remarkable. At hotels, robots deliver room service from ground-floor cabinets to guest rooms. Hotel TVs show real-time availability of washing machines so guests don’t waste trips to the laundry.

“I think what I’m trying to illustrate is that the ease of life that is brought by technology, even in the simplest ways, helps improve efficiency and lower inconvenience,” Wong says.

“These types of use cases from a consumer perspective are actually very present in day-to-day life.”

As evidence the long winter for Chinese equities may be ending, he notes southbound liquidity flowing into Hong Kong this year has already surpassed all of 2024. IPO activity has also picked up and margin trading is increasing sustainably.

Most tellingly, Chinese household deposits fell for two consecutive months recently, with money shifting into equity markets.

“I’ve always viewed that this closing of winter in Chinese equity markets needs to be led by the domestic investor,” Wong says. For global investors, Wong believes China simply can’t be ignored.

“It’s a market you can’t ignore — second largest economy in the world. It’s a place that I think every investor has to visit, at the very least. From an allocation perspective, what we’ve seen over recent years in terms of foreign capital fleeing, I think that’s certainly worth revisiting.”

Eric Wong will present his investment case at the Sohn Hearts & Minds conference at the Sydney Opera House on Friday, November 14, 2025.

The annual conference features stock picks from leading global investment experts, with all profits donated to medical research.

This year marks 10 years of the conference, which has raised over $83.7m.

This article was originally posted by The Australian here.

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