4 Megatrends Reshaping Global Investment Strategy in 2025

In 2025, markets are noisy—yet the long-duration signals are unusually clear. Inflation is easing unevenly, rate paths are cautious, and geopolitics is reorganizing trade, supply chains, and energy. Across that backdrop, four structural currents stand out and are likely to shape the next decade of capital formation. Morgan Stanley Research highlights the same pillars—de-globalization/re-globalization, longevity, AI’s evolution, and the future of energy—as core investment themes for the years ahead.

For allocators, these aren’t just narratives; they’re orientation points for portfolio design, co-investment alignment, and rebalancing. Below is a pragmatic take on each—and where Altss fits when timing and routes matter.

1) Global Commerce Rewired for a Multipolar World

What’s happening
The post–Cold War model of friction-lite globalization is giving way to a stickier, more regional pattern. The WTO frames this not as “de-globalization” but re-globalization—extending trade while hardening around security-sensitive nodes. The investable reality is “friendshoring” and redundancy where single-point failures proved costly.

On the ground, industrial policy is accelerating capacity in the U.S. and Europe. TSMC’s first 4-nanometer production in Arizona began in 2025, a public milestone for reshoring leading-edge logic; the EU is simultaneously pushing follow-on Chips Act efforts and state-aid packages to pull more manufacturing and equipment on-shore.

Meanwhile, military spending has surged to record levels, underscoring the security dimension of supply chains and dual-use tech. World military expenditure hit $2.718 trillion in 2024, up 9.4% year-over-year—the sharpest rise since at least 1988.

Where capital is moving

• Regional manufacturing hubs and enabling equipment (fabs, advanced packaging, materials).
• Logistics resilience and visibility (port/rail modernization, supply-chain risk software).
• Defence-adjacent infrastructure and cyber.

What to watch

• The shape of European listings and capex incentives into 2026.
• U.S. procurement and export-control changes around semis and critical minerals.
• Greenfield FDI tilting toward politically aligned blocs (friendshoring).

Portfolio takeaways
Balance China-dependent exposures with “friendshored” supply paths and dual-use technology. If you allocate to managers describing “re-shoring,” ask for their procurement literacy and equipment access, not just headline logos.

Altss, in practice
Altss surfaces when a GP or corporate announces a reshoring plant, board change, or JV—and routes you to the allocator or principal who moved first. Saved searches track “semiconductor capacity,” “critical minerals,” or “defence tech” so outreach happens the week a public signal appears.

2) Longevity Is Repricing Health and Wealth

What’s happening
“Healthspan” moved from conference slogan to cash flow. The SELECT cardiovascular-outcomes trial showed semaglutide reduced major adverse cardiac events by 20% in people with overweight or obesity but without diabetes—evidence that weight-loss medications carry system-level benefits beyond BMI. At the same time, GLP-1 demand is reshaping payer math and spawning telehealth distribution models.

On the business side, Hims & Hers scaled GLP-1 programs (including compounded offerings in 2024) and guided to hundreds of millions in GLP-1-related sales, while regulators and states refine rules around compounding amid shortages—evidence of both momentum and friction in access.

Parallel advances in AI-enabled diagnostics (e.g., Tempus AI’s public debut and health-system reach) and liquid biopsy research are pushing earlier detection and personalized care from the lab to the clinic.

Where capital is moving

• Senior housing and care models oriented to active longevity.
• Digital health platforms that personalize at scale and integrate with payors.
• Biotech focused on extending disease-free years, not just survival curves.

What to watch

• Payer coverage decisions on GLP-1s and cardiometabolic bundles.
• Evidence readouts for multi-cancer early-detection and disease-monitoring.
• Crossovers in Europe and Asia where aging demographics steepen.

Portfolio takeaways
Treat longevity as a cross-asset theme: healthcare services and payor-aligned tech in equities; specialist funds for biotech; REITs and private credit for senior living upgrades.

Altss, in practice
Altss tags LP mandates tilting toward aging and cardiometabolic strategies and tracks GP formation around longevity. When a principal speaks on a healthspan panel or a plan updates coverage language, your saved search triggers outreach with a credible “why now.”

3) The Energy Transition’s Realist Phase

What’s happening
Clean-energy spend is rising, but the constraint has shifted from module costs to grid capacity, storage, and permitting—and now to power-hungry compute. The IEA projects global data-centre electricity demand to more than double by 2030 to roughly 945 TWh, with AI as the biggest driver. That’s forcing utilities, regulators, and hyperscalers to front-load grid upgrades and firm capacity.

Investment is following: the IEA’s World Energy Investment 2025 tracks total energy capex at a record $3.3 trillion this year, with clean technologies drawing roughly 2x fossil fuel spend. Expect more capital into transmission, storage, and zero-carbon baseload (advanced nuclear and SMRs) as planners reconcile reliability with decarbonization.

SMRs progressed in 2025 as governments and OEMs moved from studies to siting and first-of-a-kind programs; the OECD-NEA’s SMR Dashboard recorded global expansion across designs and host countries.

Where capital is moving

• Transmission and distribution upgrades; grid-enhancing tech; long-duration storage.
• Power-purchase models for AI data centres; behind-the-meter generation.
• Critical-minerals supply chains and processing.

What to watch

• Siting and interconnection queues for large data-centre campuses.
• Power-market reforms that reward flexibility and adequacy.
• Government loan programs de-risking first-of-a-kind nuclear and hydrogen hubs.

Portfolio takeaways
Pair listed utilities and grid OEMs with private-market exposure to storage, transmission developers, and reliable baseload. Stress-test models for power cost and curtailment as compute loads scale.

Altss, in practice
Altss tracks LP commitments into energy-transition vehicles and flags when a GP shifts to grid/SMR over pure-play renewables. When a utility signs a capacity deal with a hyperscaler, your saved search elevates funds over-weighting the sub-theme—so you move first.

4) AI Evolves from Generative to Agentic

What’s happening
We moved from demo-friendly generative models to agentic systems that plan, delegate, and act across tools. The enterprise signal isn’t subtle: Microsoft introduced multi-agent orchestration across Copilot services at Build 2025; Salesforce’s Agentforce matured from concept to platform; HubSpot rolled out Breeze Agents embedded across go-to-market workflows. Each is a step toward teams of specialized agents executing multi-step tasks under governance.

On the frontier, AI + quantum research ecosystems are forming; IBM’s $100 million university partnerships aim at a 100,000-qubit quantum-centric supercomputer—signaling how compute, algorithms, and workflow automation will co-evolve over the decade.

Where capital is moving

• SaaS that embeds agent workflows into finance, support, R&D, and legal.
• Cybersecurity tuned to agentic threat models and autonomous actions.
• Energy-efficient compute (chips, memory, interconnects) and orchestration.

What to watch

• Policy and compliance patterns for autonomous actions in regulated industries.
• Vendor roadmaps for observability and control of agent teams.
• Energy footprints and siting decisions for model-rich workloads.

Portfolio takeaways
Back companies that reduce operational drag today—agentic systems in revenue ops, support, and engineering—while maintaining optionality on model choice. Demand governance primitives (audit trails, rollbacks, human-in-the-loop).

Altss, in practice
Altss tags new AI-dedicated funds, family offices stepping into infrastructure and vertical models, and board/principal moves that telegraph buyer intent. When a vendor ships multi-agent features or a CIS-benchmarked control appears, you’ll know which allocators leaned in.

Why Altss matters in a megatrend market

Megatrends attract capital—and noise. Winning depends on timing and routes: who is active this week, why they’re moving, and how to reach the decision-maker. That’s the loop Altss compresses.

• Allocator social listening. We watch investor signals—mandate language, board/principal moves, filings, event rosters—and resolve them to entities and decision-makers.
• Entity-resolved investor graph. Family offices, RIAs, foundations, endowments, and institutional LPs linked to the managers and themes they back—so you can see warm paths and co-invest capacity.
• Verified routes, fewer emails. Principal-level contacts with deliverability guardrails; follow-ups only when new public signals appear.
• Saved searches and alerts. Your themes (re-globalization, longevity, grid, agents) become living filters. When something changes, Altss tells you who and why now.

Bring one live theme. We’ll show you the allocators leaning in, the warm path to a first call, and a time-boxed plan to turn signal → meeting → allocation.