Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as the dominant force influencing institutional investors’ investment strategy, with 63% of investors identifying it as the largest megatrend impacting their decisions over the next five years, Nuveen’s sixth annual Equilibrium Global Institutional Investor Survey has revealed.
Energy transition ranks second at 40%, followed by deglobalisation at 36%.
The survey results indicate unprecedented institutional engagement with AI, with 96% of institutions actively investing in AI-related opportunities. Three-quarters of investors (75%) believe AI will create a profound increase in economic productivity over the next decade.
Investors are directing capital toward cloud infrastructure, computing power and chips, AI model and software development, and energy production to support AI growth. Among investors allocating to AI opportunities, 39% rate energy production and infrastructure as the biggest investment opportunity.
“Virtually every conversation we're having with institutional investors includes a discussion of the myriad ways to express a view on AI,” said Harriet Steel, global head of institutional distribution at Nuveen.
“What's evolved in the last 12 months is not just the recognition of AI's transformative potential, but the sophistication with which investors are approaching it—appetite for exposure to cloud infrastructure and semiconductors remains strong, even as investors are also seeking more direct exposure to the energy production and transmission buildouts required to power this revolution.”
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of institutions agree that projected rapid growth in energy demand is strengthening the opportunity set for clean energy investments. Among impact-focused investors, energy innovation and infrastructure projects rank as the top areas for investment.
Almost all survey respondents (91%) made portfolio changes due to trade, tariff and geopolitical issues in 2025. Among the investors that reallocated capital by region, more than one-third (36%) increased exposure to Europe, reflecting a strategic shift toward diversification amid heightened uncertainty.
While 74% of respondents agree that 2025 delivered more upside than downside to portfolios, nearly half (44%) also agree that 2025's unprecedented tariff and trade actions will have long-lasting repercussions on investment strategy. Looking ahead, 48% of investors expect US capital market dominance to decline over the next decade.
Investors' expectations for rate cuts are divided. Almost half (47%) of respondents expect gradual and steady U.S. Federal rate cuts that will provide a boost to markets, compared with 32% forecasting choppy or unpredictable rate cuts leading to market volatility. Delayed or paused cuts due to reinflation were forecast by 12% of respondents, whereas 8% indicated they expect accelerated cuts due to concerns about a deeper economic slowdown.
About eight in 10 investors (81%) are planning to increase allocations to private markets over the next five years, with more than half (51%) planning to increase private allocations in their portfolios by five to 15 percentage points. Private infrastructure, private credit and private equity are top picks for alternative/private investment in the next two years, with 43% of institutions planning to increase allocations to private infrastructure and private credit, followed closely by private equity (42%).
The top choices for investment within private fixed income include private investment grade corporates (44%), private investment grade infrastructure debt (44%) and private asset-backed securities (ABS) (40%).
Nearly half of investors (46%) plan to add one to two new types of alternative credit investments over the next two years, and 15% plan to add three or more.
Nuveen and CoreData surveyed 800 institutions globally, spanning North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific (APAC) in October and November 2025.
