The 2026 Sohn Hong Kong Conference opened its Next Wave segment, reserved for emerging managers still building their track records, with a pitch on a controversial tech stock. Kenny Zhang, CIO of Valliance Asset Management, a global equity long-short strategy specializing in the digital economy, stepped up to argue that this tech giant is one of the most mispriced and misunderstood opportunities in global AI.
Born in China and relocated to the United States at age 13, Zhang developed his investing instincts through a career that included a three-day due diligence trip in Shanghai that turned into a seven-month deep dive and ultimately doubled in returns within a year. That same willingness to go deep where others stop was part of the idea he he brought to Hong Kong.
Before Valliance, Zhang was Strategic Officer and Head of Strategic Investments at the data-center operator GDS Holdings, where he led an M&A team that completed more than 15 data-center acquisitions, and earlier was a long/short research analyst at Moore Capital Management; he began his career at Brookfield Asset Management. He holds a B.S. in information systems, with a second major in economics, from Carnegie Mellon University.

