Columbia Threadneedle: Rising AI Spending Will Keep Fueling Tech Stocks

Tiffany Wade, senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, believes AI spending growth is only picking up speed. That gives her reason to expect the rally in tech stocks to continue for at least two more quarters.

Acceleration, Not a Plateau

Some analysts have warned of possible "AI fatigue" among corporate buyers. Wade sees the opposite. Big tech companies keep increasing capital investment in infrastructure: server capacity, chips and cloud services continue to receive record funding, even with interest rates high.

In her assessment, demand does not come only from giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon, which have spent tens of billions of dollars on data centers and AI models for several years now. Hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide are only now starting to seriously integrate AI into their business processes. This "second tier" will be the main source of spending in the coming quarters.

Notably, Wade talks about acceleration, not about spending holding steady. The distinction matters: if spending growth merely held at its current pace, tech stocks could stagnate because expectations are already priced in. Acceleration means the market has not yet fully absorbed the incoming data.

What Is Holding Up the Rally

Among the supporting factors, Wade names both fundamental trends and structural features of the current cycle:

• Corporate customers are moving from pilot projects to production deployment
• Chipmakers and cloud providers are signing long-term contracts that give them visibility into revenue
• Margins at leading AI companies remain high even as costs rise
• Geopolitical competition between the US and China is driving sovereign investment in AI
• Spending on AI infrastructure continues to exceed analysts' original forecasts

Taken together, these factors, according to Wade, create a steady tailwind for the entire tech sector.

Time Horizon and Risks

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is one of the world's largest asset managers. Wade's view reflects the stance of an institutional investor that builds forecasts on actual cash flows rather than market sentiment. "At least two quarters" is a clear public position that stakes her reputation on a specific time horizon.

The market is not free of risks, however. Unexpected shifts in Federal Reserve rhetoric, new restrictions on chip exports or disappointing quarterly earnings could trigger a short-term correction. But Wade's core thesis is that the foundation of AI spending is solid enough to withstand such shocks.

"AI spending growth is actually accelerating,"

Tiffany Wade said on Bloomberg Television.

What This Means

When conservative institutional managers publicly bet on the tech sector, that is a market signal in itself. Columbia Threadneedle is not a speculative hedge fund but a long-term investor with a reputation it guards. Her optimism suggests that professional managers no longer see the AI boom as a possible bubble, but as a structural shift whose potential has not yet been fully played out.