The AI investment wave is unstoppable, HSBC shouts "buy" for US stocks

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, the investment wave centered around AI has once again swept through the US stock market, prompting international asset management giant HSBC’s private banking to upgrade its asset allocation rating for US stocks from "neutral" to "overweight" due to its long-term optimism about the investment prospects of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, HSBC’s private banking has downgraded its rating for European stocks from "overweight" to "neutral," marking a complete reversal of the institution's investment outlook earlier this year.

Overall, the new round of AI frenzy recently dominated by NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Taiwan Semiconductor has driven HSBC to shift its investment direction in the stock market. HSBC’s private banking has adopted an optimistic bullish rating for US stocks, while taking a relatively cautious asset allocation stance by turning to "neutral" for the European stock market, which has significantly outperformed US stocks this year.

Despite the significant uncertainty and investment disruption caused by the trade policies led by US President Donald Trump, American tech giants such as "AI chip leader" NVIDIA, and AI application leaders Microsoft and Google have still delivered a strong first-quarter report amid Wall Street's gloomy sentiment. "These positive factors further solidify HSBC’s private banking's bullish enthusiasm for stocks expected to benefit from the AI boom," said Willem Sels, Global Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Global Private Banking and Wealth Management, in an interview on Friday.

During Friday's European trading session, the three major US stock index futures rose slightly.

The AI investment boom once again dominates the market

From the recent global stock market perspective, the "AI narrative" has taken over from tariffs and macro uncertainty expectations, continuing to dominate market trading logic. This so-called "AI investment boom" has once again taken the lead in the market after a three-month hiatus, mainly due to the second-quarter performance of tech companies closely related to AI exceeding market expectations.

In particular, the performances of leaders in the "AI computing power supply chain" such as Taiwan Semiconductor, ASML, Amphenol, and NVIDIA have shown that even with the Trump administration launching a new round of aggressive tariffs globally, the demand outlook for AI computing power and the so-called "AI infrastructure investment logic" still possess long-term investment return growth potential that remains "intact." AI GPU leader NVIDIA has surged over 50% since its low in April, while AI ASIC leader Broadcom's stock price has risen over 60% during the same period, reaching an all-time high, making it the "strongest AI computing power infrastructure stock" of the year.

A recent survey released by Bank of America shows that software spending closely related to AI applications continues to dominate the priority level of corporate software budget expenditures, and the category of cloud infrastructure AI software unexpectedly ranks first in corporate AI budget spending, indicating that the global demand for AI computing power led by cloud giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Google continues to surge.

In an email response to a reporter's question, Sels wrote: "As AI technology continues to evolve and accelerate in popularity, the demand for storage and computing hardware capabilities is also rising. Semiconductors, data centers, cloud storage, network infrastructure, and software should all benefit from this trend." Regarding the European stock market, before William Searles made the above comments, he stated earlier this week in an interview that the coalition agreement reached by Germany's largest political party was "somewhat disappointing."

HSBC is also optimistic about the stock markets in China, India, and Singapore

William Searles also mentioned on Friday: "We are restructuring our equity market exposure, particularly taking an 'overweight' position in the U.S. and Asia." He also discussed the outlook for the U.S. economy and investment opportunities in the fixed income sector during the interview.

HSBC has also given an "overweight" asset rating to the stock markets in China, India, and Singapore, primarily because these markets are driven by domestic policy orientation and internal demand, providing significant buffers against the headwinds of uncertain global trade policies led by the Trump administration.

Since March, unpredictable policy measures from Trump have sparked widespread investor questions about a "sell-off of America," depressing the value of dollar assets and causing severe fluctuations in the U.S. stock, bond, and currency markets. However, the U.S. stock market has not been persistently overshadowed by pessimism, especially as the AI boom has once again swept through U.S. stocks, driving a significant rebound. As of Thursday's close, the S&P 500 index has risen over 19% from its April low.

The recent series of radical tariffs proposed or initiated by the Trump administration has brought a resurgence of inflation, which may lead American consumers, who have been struggling with high inflation in recent years, to further cut spending, thereby severely impacting the U.S. economy. Additionally, Trump's attacks on independent U.S. institutions like the Federal Reserve have irreversibly shaken foreign investors' confidence in dollar assets, and the notion of "American exceptionalism" is gradually collapsing due to these factors. Those who have long invested in the U.S. market are beginning to consider: perhaps it is time to implement the "Make America Go Away" strategy—escaping the U.S. market due to the collapse of "American exceptionalism."