Global manufacturing has entered a new regime. Electrification is intensifying as a structural driver of energy demand, industrial investment and geopolitical leverage – reshaping not just energy markets, but industrial power.

We have identified four pivotal changes that point to an emerging change in market trends with investors refocusing more on fundamental and structural growth. These four changes are a revival of quality stocks, broadening out of the AI theme, the rise of China and India and the peak of US equity market capitalisation dominance.

Since 2020, five major shifts have led to the current K-shaped growth structure of the global economy and equity markets, with huge divergence between winners and losers.

The transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world order – exemplified by simultaneous conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East – underscores the strategic imperative of abundant energy and large manufacturing capacities.

The world currently seems rather unipolar with the US and President Trump setting the agenda. Investors are kept busy trying to distinguish noise from reality. This has shortened investors’ time horizon and created a more complex investment environment.