As 2025 draws to a close, something subtle but significant is shifting beneath the surface of global markets. While Artificial Intelligence remains the center of gravity for investor conversations, the unconditional optimism of the past two years is evolving into something more disciplined.
Technology stocks have faced renewed pressure recently, weighing on the S&P 500. But make no mistake: This is not a collapse in belief. It is a reassessment.
For a long time, the market treated AI as a single, unified trade. Now, we are seeing a decoupling. While short-term traders wrestle with valuation concerns and stock prices oscillate, long-horizon capital is becoming less visible in public markets.
Equity Caution vs. Infrastructure Commitment
The headlines tell one story, but the checkbooks tell another. While public equity markets are jittery, real capital is flowing decisively into the physical backbone of the digital economy.
According to Reuters, deal activity in data centers and related infrastructure exceeded $60 billion in 2025. This is a record year for hard assets. A prime example is SoftBank’s strategic pivot: reportedly trimming exposure to publicly traded AI darlings to fund a massive $22.5 billion commitment largely tied to OpenAI’s physical expansion.
The divergence is stark. Equity investors are debating whether share prices have run too far. Infrastructure investors, meanwhile, are acting on a simpler truth: the demand for power, cooling, land, and grid connectivity is real, durable, and still critically underbuilt.
The Signal from Institutional Giants
This shift toward "tangible" assets is being led by the world's most sophisticated allocators.
The Financial Times reports that AustralianSuper—one of the largest pension funds globally—is preparing to reduce its allocation to global listed equities in 2026. Instead, they are increasing exposure to listed infrastructure and private equity.
Why? Because pension funds don't trade on quarterly buzz. They trade on multi-decade cash flows. By moving capital from volatile tech stocks to the stability of infrastructure, they are signaling that the next phase of value creation won't come from margin expansion, but from industrial execution.
A Market Relearning Selectivity
What we are witnessing is a classic maturation cycle. The era where mere "AI exposure" justified any valuation is fading.
As we head into 2026, the market is becoming divided along time horizons.
Short-term: Investors are right to be cautious about crowded trades and high P/E ratios in the "Magnificent Seven."
Long-term: The opportunity is migrating to the "builders"—the firms providing the energy, the copper, and the concrete.
Today’s AI conversation may still revolve around software headlines, but the capital that matters most is being deployed elsewhere—steadily, deliberately, and largely out of view. For observers of capital flows, the signal is increasingly clear: the next phase is being built, not marketed.
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Written by Deniss Slinkins
Global Financial Journal
