Doubts have assaulted the stock markets at the start of the week. You are questioning the rally of artificial intelligence (AI) and investors recalibrate valuations. The startup China DeepSeek is in the spotlight for its AI language model, a rival to OpenAI’s well-known ChatGPT. The Chinese proposal has raised eyebrows, since it is less expensive than others and that implies less investment in processors, data centers or energy demand.
Therefore, the technology sector is not the only one that is suffering due to these worse prospects. Socimis, construction companies or energy companies are also in the losing bag. Artificial intelligence requires significant infrastructure: large-scale computing equipment or data centers. That is, specific facilities that house a large computing capacity (where construction companies or SOCIMIs are involved). In addition, energy is a fundamental part of the equation, since electricity demand increases at the same time as computing demand. Therefore, AI not only moves technology companies, but also covers many sectors.
In the case of the Ibex 35, ACS (-5.6%) or Merlin Properties (-3.8%) are the two most bearish of the session. Both companies have business in data centers and the fear is that Previous investment forecasts were exaggerated and, therefore, also the valuations. The reaction of investors is backward.
Although the Ibex 35 as a whole is immune to widespread losses – it has been trading flat since the mid-session – it also has some exposure to artificial intelligence or data centers through both companies. The positive thing is that its weight is limited and this is noticeable in the price of the index, especially with respect to its European peers or Wall Street. In the Old Continent the losses in the indices exceed 1% and in New York the Nasdaq 100 futures anticipate a fall of 4%.
Four companies in the ACS group are in the data center business: Turner, Iridium, CIMIC or Hochtief. Through them, it has a presence in the United States, Spain and Europe, Asia and Australia. The Spanish firm is focusing part of its strategy on these infrastructures. In fact, earlier this month it completed the purchase of the Irish engineering firm, Dornan. The objective of the acquisition is to grow in data centers in Europe. Furthermore, as detailed by ACS itself in its files, it has built data centers for the four largest technology companies in the world.
The Spanish hit all-time highs in the stock market last week, close to 52 euros per share. This milestone in its listing coincided with the Stargate project in the United States, announced by Donald Trump. This is a joint venture between Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank to invest in AI and all its associated infrastructure. In total, they plan to disburse $500 billion, a large injection of money for the sector. ACS picked up this project with increases in the stock market, but today it is registering losses after the DeepSeek language model is changing the pace of the stock markets.
Some companies, such as ACS or Merlin, benefit from investment expectations in this area, which are deflating today. The same thing happens with the Spanish SOCIMI. The company has been betting on real estate focused on data centers for months and has five of these infrastructures, part already underway and part in development. This same month, the firm has announced two data centers in Extremadura for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HCP).
Scheneider Electric is an industrial firm that also has exposure to AI, as it is also involved in the business in data centers, computing and energy management. The French company, like ACS, comes from hitting all-time highs in the stock market, but this Monday investors undo positions and it falls 9.2%.
With Siemens Energy similar is happening. Last week, an executive from the firm celebrated the Stargate project and highlighted that the company was very well positioned to benefit from this investment, since data centers imply greater energy demand. Although it has plummeted 18% today, it has just reached historic highs thanks to the prospects for the sector last week.
The change in perspectives has occurred abruptly. Last week Stargate raised spirits and valuations and, this Monday, DeepSeek erases a good part of that movement. The question is how much AI can move.
Beyond SOCIMIs, construction companies or energy companies, among those clearly affected are technology companies. ASML cut 9% and Infineon 3%. The first manufactures machinery to produce chips and the second is semiconductors.
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