BlackRock mid-year review weighs APAC AI opportunities

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

7 July 2026

BlackRock has revealed its approach to investing in artificial intelligence (AI) in its 2026 Midyear Global Outlook saying it looks beyond regional labels to target AI bottlenecks and enablers, plus durable income where policy and currencies diverge.

Writing in the Outlook, BlackRock Investment Institute Chief of APAC and Middle East Investment, Ben Powell says that Asia-Pacific sits at the centre of AI bottlenecks with Taiwan and Korea anchoring AI hardware, Japan and China mattering for physical AI, and Australia tied to natural resources.

He said BlackRock’s bottom line with respect to APAC, is that the investment case starts less with the regional label than with the exposure – “bottlenecks that can translate into earnings, income streams that compensate for risk and reform stories backed by capital discipline.

“The region exemplifies why geographic labels can obscure more than they reveal. The same region contains very different exposures: AI hardware in Taiwan and Korea; automation and corporate reform in Japan; physical AI scale and manufacturing depth in China; data centres, electronics and supply-chain diversification in ASEAN; digital infrastructure and domestic capital formation in India; and resources, energy and critical minerals in Australia.

“These exposures have different earnings drivers, policy regimes, valuation risks and implementation routes.”

“What does all this mean for investments? In our view, the implication is to choose the exposure first, then the vehicle. For AI, that means hardware supply chains where expectations are not excessive and where earnings and margins show resilience, as well as physical-AI enablers in automation, robotics and industrial technology.

“For infrastructure, the opportunity may sit closer to the bottlenecks themselves: data centres, power, grids, cooling, logistics, resources and digital infrastructure.

“For income, our upgraded view on EM local-currency debt supports selective APAC exposure where carry, currency valuations and domestic fundamentals align, while tight credit spreads argue for caution in broad credit beta.

“Reform-linked companies with improving capital discipline offer another targeted route to returns, even in markets such as Japan and Korea where we are neutral the broad benchmarks.”