Editor’s Note: In this week’s issue, Robert Rapier breaks down where the real money flows when AI reshapes the economy — and it’s not where most investors are looking. The companies controlling the energy, chips, and infrastructure AI can’t function without are the ones positioned for the biggest gains. Robert has been tracking these bottleneck plays inside Utility Forecaster for years. If you want to see the specific stocks he’s recommending right now — including his updated Best Buys list — click here to learn more about Utility Forecaster.

Spend enough time reading about artificial intelligence and you’ll notice the debate quickly splits into two camps. One side sees a bubble—another overhyped technology cycle that will eventually disappoint. The other sees something far more disruptive: a force that could reshape the global economy, eliminate entire categories of jobs, and drive the cost of many goods and services toward zero.

The truth likely sits somewhere in between. But for investors, the more important question isn’t which side is right. It’s this: Where do you put your money if AI really does change everything?

The answer may not be as straightforward as you think.

AI Won’t Eliminate Scarcity—It Will Move It

The idea of a “post-scarcity” economy makes for great headlines. If AI can generate content, write code, analyze data, and automate workflows at near-zero marginal cost, it’s easy to imagine a world where abundance becomes the norm.

But that narrative overlooks something fundamental. AI doesn’t run on ideas. It runs on infrastructure.

Behind every AI model is a massive physical system—data centers consuming enormous amounts of electricity, chips that take years and billions of dollars to produce, and networks that move vast quantities of data around the world. As AI adoption accelerates, demand for these inputs isn’t falling. It’s exploding.

In other words, AI could make digital goods abundant, but it makes the underlying physical enablers more valuable.

The Real Opportunity: Own the Bottlenecks

If AI is going to reshape the economy, the biggest winners won’t necessarily be the companies building the flashiest applications. They will be the ones controlling the resources AI cannot function without.

Start with energy.

AI is incredibly power-intensive, and that demand is growing fast. That creates a long runway for regulated utilities and infrastructure providers like NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), both of which are investing heavily in grid expansion and generation capacity. On the infrastructure side, companies like Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) and Williams Companies (NYSE: WMB) stand to benefit from rising natural gas demand tied to power generation.

Then there’s the hardware layer.

AI doesn’t exist without semiconductors—especially high-performance chips and advanced memory. Leaders like NVIDIA (NSDQ: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NSDQ: AMD) dominate AI accelerators, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) manufactures many of the world’s most advanced chips. These are capital-intensive businesses with high barriers to entry—exactly the kind of scarcity AI cannot erase.

Real estate may not be one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about AI, but it should be.

Data center REITs like Equinix (NSDQ: EQIX) and Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) are positioned at the center of this buildout. AI workloads require dense power capacity and advanced cooling, and not every facility can meet those requirements. That makes existing, well-located assets increasingly valuable.

Beneath all of this is the infrastructure layer—fiber, networking, and connectivity. Companies such as American Tower (NYSE: AMT) and Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) provide critical connectivity that supports the flow of data powering AI systems.

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Robert just walked you through the four layers of infrastructure AI can’t survive without — energy, semiconductors, real estate, and connectivity. Inside Utility Forecaster, he’s been building positions in exactly these bottleneck companies. His Growth portfolio returned 16.5% in 2025. His Income portfolio delivered 10.7% plus a 4.8% average yield — with less than half the market’s volatility. Want to see which specific stocks made that possible? Get the full portfolio and Best Buys list here.

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Don’t Overlook the Quiet Winners

There’s another group of beneficiaries that tends to get less attention: companies that use AI effectively rather than sell it.

AI is a productivity engine. It allows businesses to streamline operations, reduce labor costs, and improve decision-making. The biggest gains will accrue to firms that can deploy AI across large, complex operations.

In insurance and financial services, companies like Progressive Corporation (NYSE: PGR) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) are already using AI to refine underwriting, detect fraud, and enhance customer interactions. In logistics, United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) is leveraging AI to optimize routing and reduce costs.

Healthcare is another promising area. Firms like Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ: ISRG) are integrating AI into diagnostics and surgical systems, improving outcomes while driving efficiency.

These companies won’t always be labeled as “AI plays,” but their margins could steadily expand as adoption deepens.

Where the Risks Are

If AI is going to create anything close to abundance, it will happen first in areas where the cost of replication is already low.

That puts pressure on businesses tied to basic content, commodity software, and routine white-collar services. Companies that rely on producing undifferentiated digital output or performing repetitive analytical tasks face the greatest risk of disruption.

For example, legacy media firms and low-margin digital content platforms may struggle to maintain pricing power in a world flooded with AI-generated alternatives. Similarly, smaller software vendors without strong differentiation could find themselves competing against increasingly capable AI-driven tools embedded in larger platforms.

The key is to avoid businesses whose core value can be easily automated.

A Smarter Way to Play the AI Boom

It’s tempting to think of AI as a technology trend that you invest in directly—buy the companies building the models and ride the wave. But that approach comes with real risks. Competition is intense, and leadership can shift quickly.

A more durable strategy is to focus on the parts of the system that don’t change as quickly.

Energy demand will grow if AI grows. Semiconductor demand will grow. Infrastructure demand will grow. These are structural tailwinds, not speculative bets.

Layer in companies that can use AI to expand margins, and you have a portfolio positioned to benefit whether AI evolves gradually or accelerates faster than expected.

Final Thoughts

AI may or may not deliver a true “post-scarcity” economy. But even in the most optimistic scenario, scarcity doesn’t disappear—it shifts.

And when it comes to investing, that shift is everything.

The smartest investors won’t chase the hype. They’ll own the assets that make the entire system possible—and profit from the constraints everyone else overlooks.

Collect Dividends From the Boring Stocks Quietly Powering the AI Boom

The AI boom doesn’t run on hype – it runs on electricity, and smart investors are positioning themselves in the companies that actually deliver the power. Every time a ChatGPT query is answered, a data center trains a model, or a cloud server processes a request, an enormous amount of electricity is consumed – and that demand is only accelerating. Data centers already account for 6–8% of total U.S. power consumption, with projections putting that figure at 11–15% by 2030.

While everyone else is chasing AI software stocks at sky-high valuations, Utility Forecaster, led by 36-year energy veteran and chemical engineer Robert Rapier, has built a portfolio of essential power and infrastructure companies that are positioned directly in the path of this demand surge – and the results speak for themselves.

Click here to see the stocks in the Utility Forecaster portfolio.