Bloomberg, J.P. Morgan identify leading ETF themes for 2026

The hottest trade on Wall Street isn’t a chatbot or a chip stock. It’s the stuff that keeps the chatbots running: power plants, data centers, rockets, and missile systems. Bloomberg and J.P. Morgan have both zeroed in on AI, infrastructure, defense, space, and nuclear as the dominant ETF themes for 2026, reflecting a market that has moved past the initial AI hype cycle and into a harder, more capital-intensive phase of the buildout. The numbers behind the narrative Thematic ETFs now manage over $256 billion across hundreds of funds, and the sectors attracting the most attention are the ones solving AI’s real-world bottlenecks. J.P. Morgan projects total AI-related capital expenditures will hit $5.5 trillion by 2030, revised upward from an earlier estimate of $5.1 trillion. For 2026 alone, hyperscaler capex is projected at $650 billion, with operating cash flow expected to surpass $900 billion by 2027. Nuclear-focused funds have been among the biggest beneficiaries. Funds like NUKZ climbed roughly 64% in 2025, driven almost entirely by AI data center power demand. The logic is straightforward: training and running large language models requires enormous amounts of electricity, and n...