Paul Wick's tech fund outperforms 94% of peers over five years

Paul Wick’s fund is up almost 55% in 2026, a figure that lands like a thunderclap when set against the S&P 500’s comparatively modest 13% gain, Business Insider reported. In a year when volatility has rattled the AI-led bull market and beaten up the very stocks that powered the boom, the Columbia Seligman Technology and Information Fund (CCIZX) isn’t just surviving—it’s outperforming 94% of its peers over the last five years and 93% over the past decade and a half, according to Morningstar data.

That consistency is the product of 36 years at the helm, a tenure that began not with a gradual apprenticeship but with a two-week crash course. In 1990, Wick was pulled from the high-yield bond strategy and handed the reins of the tech fund when his predecessor retired. “It was a trial by immersion,” he told Business Insider. If you had invested $10,000 in the fund ten years ago, it would now be worth roughly $109,000.

Continuity in a Churning Industry

Wick attributes his edge to several structural advantages, starting with stability. Most of his team have worked alongside him for more than a decade, a rarity in an industry where analyst turnover often tracks quarterly earnings cycles. That continuity pairs with institutional weight: CCIZX oversees $29 billion in assets, while parent Columbia Threadneedle manages over $700 billion. “We’re one of the largest investors in the US technology industry,” Wick said. “Company managements want to see us. We get preferential access.”

His base in Menlo Park puts him physically inside Silicon Valley’s gravitational pull, but the scale matters more. Being among the first calls a management team returns after an earnings print gives Wick and his analysts information advantages that smaller funds cannot replicate.

What He’s Buying When Others Are Selling

The strategy itself is deceptively simple: find companies with competitive moats—products so entrenched that customers keep paying—led by management teams trusted to deliver growth, all at valuations the market has neglected. “Ideally, you want to find a great company that’s been neglected by the market,” Wick said.

After a big run-up in June, Wick trimmed several positions in AI capital expenditure beneficiaries, rotating into software, internet, and cybersecurity names. Now, with those capex stocks beaten up over recent months, he’s finding entry points. Lam Research, which makes semiconductor manufacturing machinery, is down 20% in a month. Bloom Energy, which provides power solutions for data centers, has fallen 22%. He’s also eyeing semiconductor producers like Onsemi and NXP, which trade at cheaper valuations and have significant revenue exposure outside the AI trade, making them defensive hedges if the AI rally falters.

As of September 30, the fund’s top ten holdings reflected that barbell approach:

Holding	Weighting
Bloom Energy	9.48%
Lam Research	5.38%
Nvidia	4.79%
Broadcom	4.78%
Marvell Technology	3.41%
Alphabet	3.30%
Microsoft	3.02%
Apple	2.92%
GoDaddy	2.68%
Western Digital	2.32%

The Human Behind the Numbers

For all the quantitative rigor, Wick insists the job remains a daily intellectual hunt. “I like finding new ideas,” he said. “The investment industry, especially technology, is changing so continuously that you are just forced to learn all the time.”

That curiosity extends beyond balance sheets. Wick scuba dives from New Jersey quarries to the Red Sea and French Polynesia, skis, plays golf and tennis, and keeps a vacation home in Kona, Hawaii. He recently celebrated a hedge fund anniversary with a 15-liter bottle of 1994 Stag’s Leap Cask 23. One career memory stands out: shorting biotech Allakos right before both its trials failed, sending the stock down 90% in a single day with one week left in the year. “That was kind of a Christmas present,” he recalled.

Yet the counterargument hangs over any 36-year track record: past performance does not guarantee future results, and concentration in a single sector—technology—means the fund’s fate remains tethered to an industry prone to violent swings. When the AI trade corrects, even Wick’s diversified positioning within tech may not fully insulate investors from the sector’s gravity.

Still, in 2026, while the broader market digests the hangover from the AI boom, Wick’s fund has turned a $10,000 investment from a decade ago into $109,000, proving that in technology investing, longevity itself can be the ultimate competitive moat.

Worth a look