Columbia Threadneedle: рост расходов на ИИ продолжит разгонять акции техсектора

Senior Portfolio Manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments Tiffany Wade believes that growth in artificial intelligence spending is only accelerating—and this provides grounds to expect a continuation of the rally in technology stock prices for at least another two quarters.

Acceleration, Not Plateau

Contrary to the concerns of some analysts who warned of possible "AI fatigue" among corporate customers, Wade sees the opposite picture. Major technology companies are increasing capital investments in infrastructure: server capacity, chips, and cloud services continue to receive record funding even in conditions of high interest rates. According to her assessment, demand comes not only from giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, which have already been investing tens of billions of dollars in data centers and AI models for years.

Hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide are only now beginning to seriously implement AI in business processes—and this "second echelon" will become the primary source of spending in the coming quarters. Notably, Wade speaks precisely about acceleration, not about maintaining current pace. This is an important distinction: if spending growth were merely holding at the previous level, technology stock prices might stagnate due to expectations already priced in.

Acceleration means the market has not yet fully accounted for the incoming data.

What Sustains the Rally

Among the supporting factors Wade lists both fundamental trends and structural features of the current cycle:

• Corporate clients are transitioning from pilot projects to industrial implementation
• Chip manufacturers and cloud providers are obtaining long-term contracts that provide revenue visibility
• Profitability of leading AI companies remains high even as costs rise
• Geopolitical competition between the US and China stimulates sovereign investments in AI
• Spending on AI infrastructure continues to exceed initial analyst forecasts

According to the manager, the combination of these factors creates sustained tailwinds for the entire technology sector.

Horizon and Risks

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is one of the world's largest asset managers. Tiffany Wade's perspective reflects the position of an institutional investor who builds forecasts based on real cash flows, not market sentiment. A minimum of two quarters is a clear public position that stakes its reputation on a specific time horizon. Nevertheless, the market is not without risks. Unexpected changes in Federal Reserve rhetoric, new restrictions on chip exports, or disappointing quarterly earnings reports could trigger a near-term correction. But Wade's basic thesis is that the foundation of AI spending is solid enough to withstand such shocks.

"AI spending growth is actually accelerating,"

Tiffany Wade emphasized on Bloomberg Television.

What This Means

When conservative institutional asset managers publicly bet on the technology sector, this is itself a market signal. Columbia Threadneedle is not a speculative hedge fund but a long-term investor with a treasured reputation. Its optimism suggests that the AI boom is no longer perceived by professional managers as a possible bubble, but as a structural shift with potential not yet fully priced in.