AI investments surge: BlackRock, Norway's Wealth Fund, Apollo back AI

💻 “The artificial intelligence (AI) boom is running up a carbon debt.” In her latest piece for the World Economic Forum, our CEO Michelle You lays out what hyperscalers must do to scale AI without blowing past their climate targets: 🚀 Scale carbon removal ambition 📈 Lock in high-quality supply before the market tightens 🏗️ Help build the infrastructure that makes durable CDR possible Companies that move now will be better protected from climate volatility, policy shifts, and supply shocks. 📖 Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eDEhSr4W

Energy, AI, and space are redefining the global economy; but are investors ready for what’s next? 🌍 Bluemound Asset Management Founder Kirk Spano shares his outlook on emerging opportunities in AI, energy, & mid-cap growth. 🎥 Watch the full interview: https://lnkd.in/gvfMev8U #assetmanagement #midcapgrowth #investments

Is AI powering innovation? That was one of the questions put to our CTO, Elizabeth Rowsell OBE CChem FRSC, during a panel discussion at the Financial Times Energy Transition Summit in London this week. AI is a game charger in R&D, allowing us to develop new technologies sustainably, efficiently, and competitively. ⚙️ It can process high volumes of unstructured data, giving us the opportunity to conduct multiple tests to learn how products will perform. 🔍 It supports the discovery of new materials. 📊 It can provide more accuracy in the modelling process and test against a range of external conditions enabling new technologies to progress more quickly through the innovation process. Our teams are exploring how #AI can improve our technologies, and we’re excited to apply these innovations for our customers. Thanks to the Financial Times and the other panellists for the discussion. #FTEnergy

What if the so-called AI “bubble” isn’t a bubble at all? As conversations about artificial intelligence increasingly center on whether it’s in a bubble, Senior Portfolio Manager Parag Sanghani offers a different perspective. He points to a recent graphic from Schneider Electric that reframes the discussion: What if AI’s trajectory looks less like a short-lived internet revolution and more like the multi-decade evolution of the PC? If that’s the case, the real question isn’t when does the party end — it’s how will we meet the demand of a generational transformation? In that environment, many companies that appear fully valued today could, in fact, be meaningfully undervalued. Learn more about how Westwood's suite of Energy Income ETFs (MDST and WEEI) can offer exposure to the companies fueling the AI revolution: westwoodetfs.com.

What if the so-called AI “bubble” isn’t a bubble at all? As conversations about artificial intelligence increasingly center on whether it’s in a bubble, Senior Portfolio Manager Parag Sanghani offers a different perspective. He points to a recent graphic from Schneider Electric that reframes the discussion: What if AI’s trajectory looks less like a short-lived internet revolution and more like the multi-decade evolution of the PC? If that’s the case, the real question isn’t when does the party end — it’s how will we meet the demand of a generational transformation? In that environment, many companies that appear fully valued today could, in fact, be meaningfully undervalued. Learn more about how Westwood's suite of Energy Income ETFs (MDST and WEEI) can offer exposure to the companies fueling the AI revolution: westwoodetfs.com.

AI is incredible. The speed, the insight, the potential - it’s genuinely transformative. It can analyse vast datasets, detect degradation trends, and even predict emerging issues before any human would have joined the dots. At Above, we see that potential every day. Using computer vision (a branch of AI), we analyse thousands of inspection images from utility-scale solar assets - detecting faults faster, understanding degradation more accurately, and delivering clear, actionable insights to asset owners and operators. But here’s the truth: AI won’t fix the commercial constructs holding this industry back. The solar O&M sector remains undervalued and underinvested. Despite being critical to long-term performance, it’s still viewed as a cost to control rather than an investment in asset value. Current CAPEX/OPEX models prioritise short-term budgets over long-term outcomes. As a result, O&M contracts are built around compliance, not optimisation. Margins are tight, incentives are misaligned, and providers are rewarded for doing “just enough” - meeting obligations, but not tackling the small issues that quietly erode performance over time. That’s not the fault of the O&M providers; it’s a flaw in the framework. When contracts reward the lowest cost instead of the best outcome, box-ticking naturally follows. To unlock the full potential of O&M, we need to realign incentives - rewarding proactive maintenance and asset health, not just compliance. If owners and operators shared both the risks and the rewards of performance - innovation and investment would follow. Too often, AI is treated as a silver bullet - as if it will seamlessly fix inefficiencies without effort or investment. That perception is dangerous. It stifles strategic inertia, where decision-makers delay investing in the proven digital tools that could make a real impact today. At Above, we’re not waiting. We’re building and deploying the digital systems, analytics, and workflows that give operators the visibility and insight they need - right now! The problem isn’t the technology, it’s the commercial model that prevents the industry from using it to its full potential. Until the industry values performance and reliability as much as low cost, AI can only enhance insight - it won’t necessarily lead to higher performing assets. I would appreciate your thoughts..... #solar #digitalisation #inspections #assetmanagement #Oandm #AI

This chart depicts AI related investment. Post 2022 is when AI rev started and you can see the scale of how Data centers and Power Capex picked up

AI’s future depends on energy - lots of it. Building that future means reimagining how we produce and scale clean power. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Founder and Partner Mike Schroepfer “Schrep” and Garth Sheldon-Coulson, Co-Founder & CEO, Panthalassa, will discuss how building the world’s largest new energy platform can unlock clean power for AI. They will also cover actionable lessons around making the leap from R&D to scale-up by using an iterative, first-principles approach to de-risk technology, identify urgent market pain points, and build momentum with teams and investors. 🕥 Oct 29, 10:30–11:20 AM 📍Breakout Stage

The AI boom may feel unstoppable, but as Rob D. Arnott told Merryn Somerset Webb from Bloomberg, even the most dominant innovators aren’t immune to history. “Disruptors get disrupted. Think of the most valuable tech stocks in the world in 2000… none of them beat the S&P over the next 15 years,” Rob cautions. In their conversation, Rob unpacks today’s AI mania through the lens of the dot-com era, from market concentration to valuation extremes. Listen to hear Rob share his thoughts: https://lnkd.in/gWUuitZ8 #AIStocks #Nvidia #MarketConcentration #UKMarkets #MarketBubble [Disclosures: http://bit.ly/3hT1PuD] 

AI’s transformative potential is undeniable, echoing the optimism (and caution) of past technology booms. Having witnessed the digital gold rush of 2000, when the “information superhighway” became entrenched in Wall Street’s imagination, today’s wave of AI innovation feels strikingly familiar. For seasoned investors, some of the funding structures and exuberant forecasts are déjà vu. Yet the stakes this time may be even higher. While the AI infrastructure players like Nvidia are clear beneficiaries, the real pressure is turning to the rest of corporate America. Investors will increasingly scrutinize not just the promise but the concrete financial impact by asking tough questions about how companies outside the core AI ecosystem plan to harness and monetize this technology to create sustainable competitive advantages. My colleague Tim Daubenspeck offers a timely take in his latest article. Liz Lemon https://lnkd.in/eu8UUwd5