A new fully autonomous investing system, known as the Claude Portfolio, has attracted significant attention since its launch in April, amassing $21 million in investor capital. Created by Alejandro Lopez-Lira, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Florida, the portfolio leverages artificial intelligence to select and manage its stock holdings with the goal of outperforming the S&P 500.

The Claude Portfolio uses a multi-layered AI approach to construct its investments. Initially, several AI models analyze financial data, news, and analyst reports on companies within the Russell 1000 index, narrowing the pool to 50 candidates. These companies then undergo evaluation by 30 separate AI agents, divided equally between bullish and bearish outlooks. A subsequent set of 15 models synthesize these perspectives into bull, base, and bear scenarios, projecting share price targets over the coming year.

An overarching AI supervisor, referred to as the “agent of agents,” ultimately selects 15 stocks to include in the portfolio. The only constraints imposed ensure sector exposure does not exceed 35 percent, every stock has a positive expected return, and the portfolio’s overall projected return surpasses that of the S&P 500. The portfolio is regularly rebalanced, with most original holdings replaced within two and a half months.

Performance since inception has been mixed. The Claude Portfolio has generated approximately an 8 percent return over the past two months, trailing the S&P 500’s 13 percent gain for the same period. Nevertheless, some individual stock selections have drawn investor interest. For example, the portfolio made Broadcom its largest holding at the end of March, highlighting the company’s dominant position in the AI chip market and anticipating revenue streams anticipated from partnerships with tech giants like Google, OpenAI, and Meta. Shortly after Claude’s investment, Google extended its Broadcom partnership to 2031, resulting in a 5 percent share price increase.

Similarly, Claude invested in pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly shortly before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s oral version of the weight-loss drug Ozempic, coinciding with a 3 percent rise in the stock price.

Perhaps most notably, Claude acquired shares in software company ServiceNow in April, despite significant investor skepticism and a 52 percent share decline since early 2025. The AI attributed value to ServiceNow’s potential role in facilitating corporate AI integration, and the company’s shares have since risen 24 percent, representing a successful “buy the dip” strategy.

Industry experts remain cautiously optimistic about AI-driven investment models given the short timeframe. Stephen Yiu, manager of the Blue Whale Growth fund, advised prudence, citing the limited track record of such strategies. However, he acknowledged that AI-led approaches are emerging as viable competitors to traditional active management, predicting that future fund managers may face increased pressure to outperform automated systems.

While the Claude Portfolio currently operates exclusively with U.S. brokerage accounts via the Autopilot “copy-trading” platform, which allows investors to mirror its trades automatically, it is not yet accessible to UK investors. As this experiment unfolds, the financial industry will be closely monitoring whether fully AI-managed portfolios can deliver consistent long-term outperformance.