The AI Build-Out Is Just Getting Started

Motley Fool Staff, The Motley Fool Sun, June 7, 2026 at 4:57 AM GMT+7 18 min read NVDA In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing, Motley Fool contributor Rachel Warren talks with Jay Jacobs, U.S. Head of Equity ETFs at BlackRock, about the firm s 2026 thematic outlook, including: Why the AI infrastructure boom is still in its infancy. How thematic ETFs can give retail investors more precise exposure than traditional sector funds. What the rise of agentic AI, physical robotics, and tokenization means for your portfolio. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you re ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue » Before you buy stock in BlackRock, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and BlackRock wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $443,191!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,258,838!* That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by 4x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don t miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul. *Stock Advisor returns as of June 6, 2026. This podcast was recorded on May 31, 2026. Jay Jacobs: Token consumption last year grew 17 times. Not 17%, which I think most people would view as a pretty good growth company, 17 times growth of token consumption. Essentially, as much money as the major large language bottle providers are plowing into capital expenditures, they can t keep up with AI demand. Even just in the last several months, I think the narrative has shifted in the market from that of we worried companies are over-investing in capex to what if companies are actually under-investing in capex? Rachel Warren: That was BlackRock s U.S. head of equity ETFs, Jay Jacobs, breaking down what the data actually says about AI s growth trajectory. I m Motley Fool analyst Rachel Warren. I sat down with Jay to dig into BlackRock s newly released 2026 thematic outlook, covering everything from the AI infrastructure build-out to tokenization to what retail investors should be doing with their portfolios right now. Enjoy. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Motley Fool Conversations. I m Motley Fool analyst Rachel Warren. Today, I m excited to welcome Jay Jacobs, the U.S. Head of Equity ETFs at BlackRock, to the show. Jay oversees the overall product strategy, thought leadership, and client engagement for the firm s index and active equity ETF business. Prior to his current role, Jay founded and led Global x ETFs research and strategy team and previously served as a business analyst at the New York Stock Exchange, where he helped launch hundreds of ETFs on the NYSE ARCA trading platform. Today, we re going to be diving deep into the massive structural shifts shaping the global economy with BlackRock s newly released 2026 Thematic Outlook, which details how the next leg of AI Compute is colliding with physical power grid bottlenecks, surging sovereign defense spending, and a massive wave of real-world asset tokenization. Jay, welcome to the show. Rachel Warren: As U.S. head of equity ETFs, from your standpoint, I would love to hear your thoughts on how the view of a traditional portfolio has changed now that thematic funds have grown over 11X just in the past decade. Jay Jacobs: I think it s important to recognize portfolio management techniques have always been evolving as the world has evolved as data and software has evolved to make portfolios be able to be managed in different ways and assess risks and opportunities in different ways. You go back to some of the factor research in the 1970s, the introduction of the style box in the early ‘90s, the GICS sector classifications that divvied up the world into different sectors in the late 90s. There s been a constant evolution of portfolio management. What we re seeing is one of the latest evolutions is really increasingly investors are looking at the world through a thematic lens. They see the rise of artificial intelligence, the changing demographics, the changing energy needs, the future of finance, as well as geopolitical fragmentation, all being major forces that are reshaping how they can think about risks and opportunities in their portfolio. As

The AI Build-Out Is Just Getting Started

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