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Europe stock pickers go old-school to ride the next wave in AI

European stock pickers are turning to more established sectors like energies, professional information companies and even copper miners to take advantage of the next wave of the AI boom, a year after AI chipmaker Nvidia's. emergence as a driving force.

Interest for artificial intelligence assisted drive a rally. throughout equity markets in 2023, propelling Nvidia and Dutch. semiconductor equipment provider ASML into the. spotlight.

Nvidia shares are hovering near to record highs ahead of. its quarterly incomes due late on Wednesday. However, a few of. the shine has rubbed off Europe's AI-linked megacaps, prompting. financiers to seek out cheaper alternatives.

Stock pickers are now taking a look at companies and sectors that. are likely to be long-term AI recipients.

The very first phase of AI was undoubtedly chipmakers like Nvidia. Then you've already seen the 2nd wave move to the commercial. companies which actually supply the elements to the information. centres, stated Bernie Ahkong, CIO Global Multi-Strategy Alpha at. UBS O'Connor.

And now we're simply starting to get the third stage into. utility/power firms in the previous numerous weeks.

FIRING UP THE DATA CENTRES

Data centres, which are necessary to the rise of generative. AI, need substantial quantities of energy and this is expected to surge as. need for the centres accelerates.

The International Energy Company approximates total power. intake from data centres will top 1,000 terawatt hours. ( TWh) by 2026 - roughly what Japan consumes now - from 460 TWh. in 2022.

Among the most interesting ways within Europe to play AI. on a multi-year basis in fact is through a few of these utilities. business, UBS O'Connor's Ahkong stated.

Demand for data centre area in Europe is also set to. outstrip delivery of new stock for the third straight year and. AI need will exacerbate the issue, stated Kevin Restivo, who. heads European information centre research study at real estate services. company CBRE.

In the last 5 weeks, the utilities index has. risen over 9%, driven mostly by expectations for rates of interest. cuts, versus a 4.7% rise in the primary STOXX 600 index. But they are still lagging the remainder of the market year-to-date,. up simply 0.2% versus a 9% increase in the benchmark index.

Bank of America stated in a recent note European utilities. bosses are speaking about AI, but upside potential from data. centres is anecdotal at finest.

Even so, the bank states lots of companies could benefit. from a boom in AI-linked power demand, from Fortum,. Verbund and renewables supplier EDP, to. bigger players like RWE, Iberdrola, Enel. and Engie.

ADOPTERS VERSUS ENABLERS

A year back, financiers had been jittery around the disruptive. potential of AI for anything from IT services to media,. education and consulting.

How I look at AI in the UK, the United States has the enablers, we have actually. got the adopters, Trevor Green, head of UK equities for Aviva. Financiers, stated.

When investors will get particularly interested is when we. can in fact measure this in revenue capacity. The suppliers. are rightly still being a bit incredibly elusive on this as we are at such. an early stage of adoption, he stated.

He highlighted the London Stock Exchange,. information and analytics group RELX and software application group. Sage as examples of companies that have actually been dealing with. AI for years.

Now we are properly beginning to see revenue-generating. chances from it, he stated.

Marcel Stotzel, co-portfolio supervisor of Fidelity European. Fund and Fidelity European Trust, states a lot of the AI buzz has. been around the huge U.S. names behind the technology.

In the previous year, shares in the similarity OpenAI backer. Microsoft and Alphabet's Google have actually shot up. 33% -41%.

Meanwhile, some European companies have actually been quietly utilizing. AI to develop new products that are already benefiting their. clients, said Stotzel.

This has actually resulted in the European-listed recipients. trading at more attractive appraisals, he stated, listing German. software company SAP and Swiss drugmaker Roche. amongst those his group are concentrated on to play the AI style.

Miners are another location of investor interest, especially. for copper, which has actually struck record highs above $11,000 a. metric heap today, spurred largely by a lack of material. for prompt delivery.

Product trader Trafigura believes copper demand linked to. information centres and AI might amount to one million lots by 2030 and. worsen supply deficits towards the end of the decade.

The copper boom is also part of the AI craze, Kathleen. Brooks, research study director at trading platform XTB, said.

(source: Reuters)