By Stefanno Sulaiman

JAKARTA, Nov 24 (Reuters) -

State-owned BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, one of Indonesia's largest

institutional investors, is keen to invest in firms that provide

infrastructure for the artificial intelligence industry if it

gets government approval to invest overseas, a director told

Reuters.

The fund is awaiting regulatory approval to invest abroad as

it seeks to expand beyond limited domestic opportunities, Edwin

Ridwan, the firm's director of investment development, said on

Monday. There is no timeline for the decision, he said.

The fund is seeking approval to invest up to 5% of its total

portfolio overseas, he said. The social security fund has 879

trillion rupiah ($52 billion) of assets under management.

"(AI) supply chain will be a good diversification for our

investment, and it could be in the U.S., Taiwan, Japan and South

Korea," he said.

The fund sees investment opportunities in companies that support

the AI sector such as data centres, energy companies that power

the AI industry, and cable firms, Edwin said, adding that core

AI firms like the chipmakers were already "too crowded".

He did not rule out possible investment in chipmakers such

as Nvidia ( NVDA ), but said any decision would depend on the

firms' valuation.

Reuters reported in April that the fund wants to double its

exposure to local equities to up to 20% within three years from

around 10%. The largest portion of its money was invested in

bonds, with the remainder in deposits and other instruments.

($1 = 16,700 rupiah)