UBS: AI infrastructure supports half of global growth, and Tianyun's capital expenditure will reach 1.75 trillion US dollars next year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that UBS chief economist Arend Kapteyn predicts that the economic growth acceleration in 2027 will be mainly driven by investment in AI infrastructure. He expects capital expenditure of hyperscale cloud vendors to reach 1.75 trillion US dollars next year, but public opposition to data centers may delay short-term spending, and stock market performance will also have a significant impact on predictions.

He also said that this year's AI infrastructure investment hedged against the adverse impact of tariffs and the energy sector, contributing more than half of the growth in global trade, a large part of global GDP growth, and half of the increase in the stock market since the beginning of the year.

According to Arend Kapteyn, data center growth is unlikely to slow across a wider geographical area (US states and beyond) and over a longer time span (2 to 3 years). Hyperscale cloud vendors and chips are still the core of AI. AI will continue to drive extraordinary profit growth and drive the S&P 500 index to achieve a 12% return in 2027. He expects the market to spread to AI-related sectors such as industry and finance, rather than withdraw from the AI sector.

He also anticipates that as the inflationary impact of tariffs, energy and memory chip prices gradually subsides, the macroeconomic environment in 2027 will be more and more conducive to a decline in inflation. Monetary policy will only be tightened slightly, and the previous rate hike will be reversed in 2028.