Investing in AI: A Strategic Guide for Financial Advisors

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world of investing. To find opportunities and stand out from the competition, financial advisors need to stay informed on the evolving industry. 

When you have a deeper understanding of how to invest in AI, it can be easier to identify the right AI stocks and improve your business. Here are key insights to consider. 

Electrical equipment suppliers have emerged as the biggest winners from the surge in AI-driven investment, capturing the most revenue from data centers within the capital goods sector. Schneider Electric leads the pack with approximately $9.5 billion in data center revenue, which is more than 50% higher than its nearest competitor.  

For a deeper look at how AI investment is reshaping the capital goods landscape, download the full Powering Artificial Intelligence report. 

Vertiv ranks second and is the closest to a pure-play data center supplier, with more than three-quarters of its revenue coming from this market. Beyond electricals, exposure to data center spending is limited mainly to thermal and backup power providers such as Carrier, Johnson Controls, Trane, Daikin, Caterpillar, and Cummins. 

Data center construction has soared since the launch of ChatGPT, with spending reaching a record seasonally adjusted rate of $40 billion in June 2025, up 30% year-over-year following a 50% increase in 2024. Data centers now account for 40% of US office construction, up from just 15% in 2021, reflecting both the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure and declines in other commercial segments.  

This boom has driven the growth of electrical equipment suppliers to between two and four times their long-term average, far outpacing the roughly 4% historical growth rate seen since 1982. With AI data centers requiring more power and more complex infrastructure, analysts expect this momentum to continue, keeping electricals at the forefront of the capital goods sector’s AI opportunity. 

AI remains on track to be the core driver of semiconductor industry growth. Memory semis, which store information rather than processing it, are in focus given booming demand and higher prices.

Semiconductors are still the key force behind the artificial intelligence buildout. The chip industry has reported strong growth in 2025, based on statistics from the US Semiconductor Industry Association. Chip industry billings (akin to revenue) rose 33% in October 2025, thanks to the AI boom for both memory and processors. Overall, AI remains a growth driver, while PC and smartphone demand are modestly stronger than this time a year ago.

The chart below shows how semiconductor revnue has recovered thanks to AI, higher memory spending, and a bounceback in PC and smartphone demand.

Source: WSTS, Gartner, Morningstar. Data through October 2025. Exhibit as of Jan. 5, 2026. WTS data includes memory and other subsegments that are not addressed in this pulse.

Here are our top semiconductor stock picks:

• Nvidia NVDA's stock price has felt the effects of AI bubble concerns recently, but we think these fears are overblown. The bulk of AI runs on Nvidia today, and Nvidia still offers best-of-breed performance and flexibility in the fast-moving AI space.
• Broadcom AVGO is a major AI winner, in our view, with the second-largest AI processor business trailing only Nvidia. We expect Broadcom to take share as large customers use greater proportions of custom accelerators alongside GPUs.
• Marvell Technology MRVL, one of our favorites in networking semis, could be a long-term winner in AI infrastructure, bot via its custom accelerator chip designs and optical connectivity chips. In our view, this strong exposure stems from moaty intangible assets in chip design and should fuel strong growth in the long term.

For a deep dive into semiconductor market headwinds and tailwinds,

When it comes to the cybersecurity landscape, AI will be a new demand driver as attacks become more sophisticated. 

Although the AI security market is small right now, we expect rapid growth as the use of applications proliferates. And for good reason—our recent cybersecurity report suggests that the cost of a data breach is almost 50% higher for companies not using AI security compared with those that leverage these tools. 

Given that roughly 10% to 12% of public cloud spending is geared toward security solutions, we forecast the public cloud spending catalyzed by AI will add another $15 billion to $18 billion in security spending.