BlackRock Flags AI Infrastructure Funding Need, Private Credit Role

BlackRock’s 2026 Mid‑year Global Outlook highlights Asia‑Pacific as a centre of AI bottlenecks, noting that Taiwan and South Korea dominate AI hardware, Japan focuses on automation, China on large‑scale physical AI, and India, Australia and ASEAN on data‑centre and digital‑infrastructure needs. The firm advises investors to target exposure to these bottlenecks rather than regional labels, emphasizing earnings‑driven hardware supply chains, industrial‑technology enablers and selective emerging‑market debt.

BlackRock Investment Institute head Jean Boivin told Bloomberg that hyperscalers will increasingly turn to private‑credit sources to finance the massive capital‑expenditure required for AI infrastructure, projected at about $820 billion this year – an 80 % rise from the previous record. Private‑credit financing, paired with corporate bonds and off‑balance‑sheet arrangements, is expected to create new transmission channels for banks and non‑bank investors as the sector expands.