Remember when investing themes were simple? Tech stocks go up, value stocks are boring, bonds are for your grandparents. Well, BlackRock just released their 2026 Thematic Outlook, and it reads like a sci-fi thriller meets an energy crisis documentary.
Here’s the headline: thematic investing has exploded. We’re talking 11x growth in thematic fund assets over the past decade. In 2025 alone, $68 billion flowed into thematic ETFs. That’s not pocket change, that’s a movement.
But what exactly is BlackRock excited about?
AI isn’t slowing down (It’s actually speeding up)
Everyone’s worried AI spending is a bubble waiting to pop. BlackRock says: not so fast.
Here’s why. We’ve been measuring AI growth all wrong. It’s not just about how many people use ChatGPT. It’s about what they’re using it for. And the answer is: increasingly complex stuff.
Think of AI consumption in “tokens,” basically the fuel AI burns to work. A simple chat query? That’s your baseline. But coding assistants? That’s 10-50x more tokens. Video generation? 100-500x. Autonomous vehicles and drug discovery? We’re talking a million times more computational power.
And here’s the kicker: token usage has grown 17x in just over a year. That’s not a bubble, that’s an exponential curve that’s just getting started.
The spending looks big (about 0.8% of US GDP), but historically? It’s actually modest. The railroad boom of the 1860s consumed 4.5% of GDP. US auto infrastructure in the 1910s? 2%. AI is just warming up.
While everyone obsesses over AI, defense spending is playing the long game. And it’s changing shape.
Defense tech is the quiet giant
The US Department of Defense isn’t just buying more tanks and jets. Space-based systems spending tripled from 2020 to 2026. Computing and intelligence systems? Doubled. We’re talking $34 billion going into military communications and intelligence, with $5.4 billion specifically for emerging tech like tactical edge computing and cyber operations.
But here’s what’s interesting: AI construction gets 10x more investor attention than defense, even though defense spending is 4x larger as a percentage of GDP. That’s a massive attention gap. And where there’s an attention gap, there’s usually an opportunity.
Natural gas is America’s secret weapon
Here’s something you probably didn’t see coming: natural gas pipelines.
The US is experiencing its largest gas pipeline boom in 18 years. Why? Because AI data centers need power. Lots of it. And building new transmission lines takes 8-10 years versus 1.5 years for a data center.
US natural gas is priced 70% lower than Europe’s average. It supplies a third of America’s energy. And with global infrastructure investment expected to hit $100 trillion by 2040, the US is positioned to export not just energy, but geopolitical influence.
The weird part: Your money might go blockchain
BlackRock’s final curveball? Tokenization.
Stablecoin transaction volumes are outpacing crypto trading. About 65% of tokenized assets run on Ethereum. We’re not talking about speculative crypto gambling anymore. We’re talking about putting real assets, private credit, even real estate on blockchains.
Think of Ethereum as the “toll road” to this new financial system. Every transaction, every tokenized asset, potentially runs through it.
What this means for you
BlackRock isn’t just forecasting trends. They’re positioning billions of dollars around these themes. Whether it’s AI infrastructure, defense technology, energy infrastructure, or tokenized assets, the message is clear: the next wave of investing isn’t about sectors, it’s about themes.
And these themes? They’re converging in ways we’ve never seen before. AI needs defense (cybersecurity). Defense needs AI (autonomous systems). Both need energy. And all of it might eventually run on tokenized rails.
The question isn’t whether these themes will matter. It’s whether you’re paying attention.
Sonia Boolchandani is a seasoned financial writer She has written for prominent firms like Vested Finance, and Finology, where she has crafted content that simplifies complex financial concepts for diverse audiences.
Disclosure: The writer and her his dependents do not hold the stocks discussed in this article.
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