Deepwater Management’s Gene Munster said Monday that the power sector is shaping up to be the next major investment opportunity in AI infrastructure, comparing the current moment to Nvidia Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) breakout in 2023, after Elon Musk said natural gas will still be needed to support data centers for years to come.
An Nvidia-Like Moment
Musk had said on X that his companies, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), are each building 100 gigawatts a year of solar production capacity “as fast as possible,” but that “natural gas will still be needed to supplement and bootstrap solar for several years.”
Munster said the moment echoes mid-2023, when it became clear that GPUs were an obvious AI investment theme, but the market still “missed the magnitude of the growth potential.”
He noted that since mid-2023, Nvidia shares are up 416%, compared with a 92% gain for the Nasdaq over the same period.
Deepwater’s Power Bets
“It makes sense to put new money to work in power,” Munster said in a post on X, adding that Deepwater has already been investing along those lines through private stakes in Antora Energy, Redwood Materials, Stone Power and Boom Supersonic.
Power ETFs to Watch
Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ:AIPO), which has exposure to energy companies such as GE Vernova, Inc. (NYSE:GEV), Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE:BE), and Constellation Energy Corp. (NASDAQ:CEG), has $906.18 million in assets and charges an expense ratio of 0.69%. The ETF has returned 20.52% so far this year and 40.98% over the past year.
VanEck Data Center Supply Chain ETF (BATS:RACK), launched in June, provides exposure to four segments that power the AI buildout: semiconductors, nuclear energy, data center solutions, and power infrastructure. It charges an expense ratio of 0.50% and has $62.56 million in assets under management. The fund has lost 10.45% so far.
State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLU) holds Nextera Energy Inc. (NYSE:NEE), Constellation Energy, and Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK). The fund, which has $ 22.01 billion in assets under management and charges an expense ratio of 0.08%, has fallen 2.20% year-to-date and returned 0.50% over the past year.
Price Action: The Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure ETF closed 0.50% lower on Monday at $27.90 and gained 0.18% in extended trading.
Benzinga Edge rankings indicate that the Defiance AI & Power ETF has a Momentum score in the 64th percentile and a negative price trend in the short- and medium-term. It has a positive long-term price trend.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo Courtesy: Frederic Legrand – COMEO on Shutterstock.com
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