Three AI investment opportunities outside the indices

IN 2008, Facebook astonished observers when it took just four and a half years to reach 100 million users. In 2025, DeepSeek achieved that in seven days. ChatGPT is on track for a billion users.

With astonishing progress in machine learning capabilities, adoption rates continue to accelerate. Over the next decade, business models will be turned on their heads in ways we have yet to imagine.

But index investors find themselves in a bind. Their portfolios are increasingly exposed to the most capital-intensive parts of the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. With the large hyperscalers – Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta – competing to outspend each other, they face a dilemma – stick with the giants, hoping for further gains, or look elsewhere?