How AI Is Supercharging American Industrial Spending

We could very well be entering an unprecedented era of U.S. domestic business spending and investment in the years to come.

Here’s how. Recently, the Alger team took a close look at the U.S. Private Nonresidential Fixed Investment (PNFI) numbers. PNFI represents business spending on productive assets such as structures (e.g., factories, data centers), intellectual property (e.g., software and R&D), and equipment (e.g., GPUs, servers).

The above chart shows how announced PNFI has skyrocketed last year, reaching $8.8 trillion as of September 2025. This represents a staggering leap from PNFI numbers from years prior, and raises optimism for future domestic spending down the line.

Ramped up PNFI spending shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise, either. A number of different factors are driving companies of all kinds to consider amplifying PNFI spending.

For instance, ongoing tariff tensions are leading many companies to rethink how their supply chains are calibrated, encouraging domestic spending and production. Domestic production could further be amplified by favorable federal policies, along with ongoing rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

Furthermore, the ongoing surge of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and innovation is continuing to create more demand for infrastructure. AI PNFI spending can help supplement power needs, fabricate necessary parts, and fund research & development.

This can provide advisors and investors with an interesting route to capitalize on the opportunities from rising PNFI spending. Gaining targeted exposure to companies enabling AI adoption can give portfolios a new way to benefit from strengthened AI infrastructure, intellectual property development, and manufacturing.

ALAI Offers a Distinct Approach to AI Investing

Alger believes that, true to its name, the Alger AI Enablers & Adopters ETF (ALAI) can help advisors and investors gain access to these kinds of companies within the ETF wrapper. ALAI looks for compelling stocks in the field of AI adoption, development, and utilization through bottom-up, fundamental research.

ALAI invests in Enablers, which are companies developing the components for and investing in AI infrastructure, and Adopters, which are companies that are successfully integrating AI technologies into their businesses to enhance their products or services or improve productivity.

Alger’s approach to AI investing and exposure has attracted significant investor interest. FactSet data finds that ALAI saw over $245 million in net flows in 2025.

For more news, information, and strategy, visit the Artificial Intelligence Content Hub.

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