By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Senior Reporter

Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC), the Philippines' first sovereign wealth fund established under Republic Act No. 11954, may act as a vehicle for pooling investments tied to the Philippines' participation in the Pax Silica initiative, though the fund does not anticipate committing its own capital to the effort, according to its top executive.

MIC President and Chief Executive Officer Rafael D. Consing, Jr. said the fund is currently in discussions with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to define its potential role.

"We're having a dialogue with the BCDA. If you look at Pax Silica, that's going to be foreign investors coming in to build an ecosystem," Mr. Consing told reporters last week.

Rather than contributing its own funds, MIC could function as an aggregating platform, channeling third-party investments into projects under the initiative.

"We can be perhaps a collective vehicle that would aggregate investments, which can be deployed," he said. "But does our capital play any role? I don't think it's needed. I really don't think it's needed."

Mr. Consing emphasized that Pax Silica will require a coordinated, whole-of-government approach, with foreign direct investment (FDI) expected to supply the bulk of the required funding.

"It's a multi-agency, whole-of-government approach, except for the capital because we're hoping that we can in fact attract that as an FDI. But as a vehicle, we're very happy to step up," he said.

The Philippines became a participant in Pax Silica in April. The initiative, led by the United States, seeks to reinforce technology supply chains and counterbalance China's expanding technology manufacturing sector. According to the US Department of State, Pax Silica currently has 24 signatories, including the Philippines.

As part of its commitment under the initiative, the Philippines plans to develop a 1,618-hectare artificial intelligence (AI)-native industrial hub in New Clark City, Tarlac, positioning itself within the global AI supply chain. The country already plays a role in the semiconductor value chain as a major hub for assembly, testing, and packaging operations — electronics and semiconductors consistently rank among the Philippines' top export earners.

On a separate matter, Mr. Consing indicated that MIC has no intention of investing directly in AI companies or AI-related equities, citing constraints in both expertise and capital relative to the breadth of the sector.

"Are we investing in AI? The answer is no. So, we're not investing in AI as a business," he stated.

Instead, MIC anticipates that companies within its investment portfolio will adopt AI technologies independently to enhance their operational efficiency and profitability.

"What we're going to do is we are hoping that the investees would invest in AI to make themselves more efficient," he said.

Mr. Consing noted that AI-related investment opportunities cut across a wide range of industries — from power generation and semiconductor manufacturing to end-user applications — making it difficult for MIC to pinpoint where direct investment would be most effective.

"Do we want to be part of that? I don't think so because we don't have the capacity, the capital, nor the expertise to actually choose which part of the stock we want to invest in," he said.

"But we can use AI to make ourselves efficient, to make our operations more profitable. So that's how we look at AI," he added.