Strong interest in artificial intelligence helped to make information technology the sector most favored by investors in June.

After IT stocks, investors were most bullish on utilities and healthcare, according to the latest results from S&P Global's Investment Manager Index survey.

S&P Global's Investment Manager Index survey includes monthly responses from a panel of just under 300 participants employed by firms that collectively represent approximately $3.500 trillion in assets under management. Data was collected June 3–6. If you would like to receive the full report on a regular basis or participate as a panel member, please email economics@spglobal.com.

More than half of the top performers in the S&P 500 index this year are tech companies, many of which are benefiting from a surge in AI spending by corporations.

NVIDIA Corp.'s GPU chips are the main component powering AI workloads and have no clear competition. It has become the world's largest company by market capitalization, overtaking Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., after its stock appreciated by nearly 181% this year. In the past month alone, NVIDIA's stock rose by about 40%, making it the best performer in the S&P 500 index.

In S&P Global's June survey, tech attracted the highest favor since February and the second-highest since November 2021.

Even outside of tech, companies are benefiting from interest in AI. Utilities such as Vistra Corp. and Constellation Energy Corp. are among the top performers this year, as investors anticipate increased energy demand from datacenters powering artificial intelligence workloads.

Annual electricity demand from US datacenters is expected to reach over 280 TWh in 2024, according to a recent forecast from S&P Global Commodity Insights. By 2028, that figure is expected to nearly double to 530 TWh.

Shareholder returns and equity fundamentals remain the key drivers of stocks' performance this year, according to the survey. Meanwhile, central bank policy has been a net drag for five consecutive months, as the US Federal Reserve indicated higher interest rates will persist for longer than anticipated.

The combined impact of delayed rate cuts and AI enthusiasm has led to wild swings in US equity investor sentiment this year. The IT sector saw a massive month-over-month drop in investor sentiment in January, with the sector falling deep into negative territory, according to the IMI. A month later, sentiment on IT was back in positive territory at the highest level since November 2021.

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