Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 22, 2025
By Alessandro Parodi and Dominique Patton
MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) - European industrial stocks such as Schneider Electric and Prysmian surged on Wednesday as traders warmed up to prospects of their U.S. business after Donald Trump unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) investment push.
The U.S. President announced on Tuesday a private-sector investment of up to $500 billion to fund AI infrastructure, sparking a wave of buying in stocks that help build and connect the architecture behind this new technology.
Many of these stocks reached record highs.
French group Schneider Electric, a major supplier of electrical equipment and other infrastructure behind data centres, soared 3.4% to a new historic high in Paris.
The French group recently bought Motivair, a U.S. specialist in liquid cooling solutions for data centres, and is working with Nvidia to develop designs for cooling systems.
Italian cable maker Prysmian, which last year bought U.S.-based Encore Wire and is looking for potential M&A on the components space for data centres in the U.S., gained 3.3%, also hitting a lifetime peak.
Under the Stargate initiative, a joint venture between ChatGPT creator OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and other equity backers, will initially deploy $100 billion. The remaining is expected to occur over the next four years.
A Prysmian spokesperson said the investments would have a ripple effect on the power grid, beyond the direct impact on their industrial and construction business.
Shares in other companies also benefited, with Germany's Siemens Energy and ABB, which provide electric hardware for AI infrastructure, rising 7.5% and 3.1% respectively to new historic highs.
"These companies are part of the investment baskets focused on electrification, data centres and energy transportation infrastructure, which benefit from the ongoing trends in AI, electric vehicles and more," said Angelo Meda, head of equities at Banor SIM in Milan. "In Europe, which lacks tech giants, these stocks are way to tap into these trends".
Europe's broader STOXX 600 index was broadly unchanged.
Investment in AI has surged since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, as companies across sectors have sought to integrate artificial intelligence into their products and services.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi and Dominique Patton, Writing by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Amanda Cooper)
