The great AI capital spending splurge is no longer just a tech story, and JP Morgan has flagged IMI and Oxford Instruments as two UK names potentially riding the wave.
The pair feature on a nine-strong "overweight" list drawn up after the bank's latest global capex survey, keeping company with heavyweights such as Siemens, Siemens Energy, Schneider, Legrand, Nexans and Atlas Copco, plus the big mining equipment makers.
The twice-yearly health check found demand humming across the board, powered by data centres, semiconductors and the sprawling AI infrastructure complex.
Better still for the bulls, the recovery is broadening out. Analysts Phil Buller, Akash Gupta and Chitrita Sinha spotted upgrades rippling through mining, iron and steel, consumer and industrials, even if some of that is AI by the back door.
The headline numbers are punchy. Global capital spending across all end-markets is now tipped to jump 16% this year, six points more than JP Morgan reckoned back in April.
The internet, media and services bucket, where data centre spending lurks, is set to nearly double with 98% growth. Semiconductors are pencilled in for a 45% rise and hardware 26%.
All of which, unsurprisingly, keeps JP Morgan firmly in the bull camp on European capital goods.
