Where will the chips fall?

AI wealth creation is likely to spread beyond technology into consumer-sensitive sectors, creating potential beneficiaries among companies not yet priced for the second-order effects.

• South Korean semiconductor companies are generating exceptional income: SK Hynix was set to pay average bonuses of nearly $500,000 per employee, while Samsung agreed to a similar outlay after a threatened strike.
• The Bank of Korea estimates that retail consumption in regional semiconductor hubs is already running well above the national average, suggesting that chip-industry profits are reaching local economies.
• In the US, mega IPOs and data-centre development are creating new fortunes; Morgan Stanley said more than half of its $148 billion of new assets in Q2 2026 came from recent IPOs, helping produce record net revenues.
• Continued data-centre construction could lift demand for electrical parts, cooling equipment and other industrial goods, then support employment, incomes and household spending beyond technology.
• Ruffer is looking for exposure to retail, luxury goods, travel and hospitality, home improvement and asset management, while noting that the wealth effect is difficult to measure and remains vulnerable to falling tech valuations, an AI-capex retrenchment, high living costs and energy-price spikes.

Takeaway: Investors should look beyond crowded AI beneficiaries toward consumer and industrial sectors that may capture the next wave of spending, but the opportunity depends on AI capex continuing to expand, with forecasts putting it above $1 trillion in 2027.