Finance
Investors back energy providers over big tech for 2026 AI bets, says BlackRock
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 13, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 19, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 13, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 19, 2026
BlackRock's survey reveals investors favor energy providers over big tech for AI growth by 2026, citing concerns over tech returns.
LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, still believes in the investment case for artificial intelligence in the year ahead but will be focusing on broader opportunities, it said on Tuesday.
Investors seeking to play the AI theme into 2026 favour energy and infrastructure providers over Wall Street big tech, BlackRock said in its Investment Directions report, citing a recent investor survey it conducted.
AI and big tech dominated markets and world equity returns in 2025, but as the multitrillion-dollar race between the likes of Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet to build new data centres generates worries about uncertain returns on capital and higher borrowing, investors were looking for new ideas, the BlackRock survey showed.
Among the 732 companies in BlackRock's survey of clients based in the EMEA region, only a fifth said that the largest U.S. tech groups represented the most compelling investment opportunity in AI.
More than half said they backed providers of power needed by data centres and 37% put infrastructure as their top AI investment choice.
"It’s increasingly important to risk-manage megacap and AI exposure while also capturing differentiated upside opportunities," BlackRock's head of core U.S. equity, Ibrahim Kanan, said in a report accompanying the survey data.
Only 7% of respondents said they believed that the AI theme was a market bubble.
(Reporting by Naomi RovnickEditing by David Goodman)
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans.
An investment portfolio is a collection of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents held by an individual or institution.
Market risks are the potential losses that can occur due to fluctuations in market prices, affecting the value of investments.
Energy investment involves allocating capital to projects or companies in the energy sector, including renewable and non-renewable energy sources.
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