By Alessandro Parodi and Dominique Patton
MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) – European industrial stocks equivalent to Schneider Electric and Prysmian surged on Wednesday as traders warmed as much as prospects of their U.S. business after Donald Trump unveiled a recent artificial intelligence (AI) investment push.
The U.S. President announced on Tuesday a private-sector investment of as much as $500 billion to fund AI infrastructure, sparking a wave of shopping for in stocks that help construct and connect the architecture behind this recent technology.
Lots of these stocks reached record highs.
French group Schneider Electric, a serious supplier of electrical equipment and other infrastructure behind data centres, soared 3.4% to a recent 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 12 months bought U.S.-based Encore Wire and is searching for potential M&A on the components space for data centres within the U.S., gained 3.3%, also hitting a lifetime peak.
Under the Stargate initiative, a three way partnership between ChatGPT creator OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and other equity backers, will initially deploy $100 billion. The remaining is predicted to occur over the following 4 years.
A Prysmian spokesperson said the investments would have a ripple effect on the facility grid, beyond the direct impact on their industrial and construction business.
Shares in other firms also benefited, with Germany’s Siemens Energy and ABB, which offer electric hardware for AI infrastructure, rising 7.5% and three.1% respectively to recent historic highs.
“These firms are a part of the investment baskets focused on electrification, data centres and energy transportation infrastructure, which profit from the continued 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 strategy 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 firms across sectors have sought to integrate artificial intelligence into their services and products.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi and Dominique Patton, Writing by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Amanda Cooper)