The "unresolved" conflict in the Middle East continues to stir up global energy prices, and the US stock market has hit new highs, making the "AI (artificial intelligence) foam theory" increasingly worried... Under the background of the great increase in uncertainty, how investors find a highly deterministic investment direction is becoming a topic of concern for global capital.

On June 2, 2026, Kuang Zheng, Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Private Banking and Wealth Management China, stated in an interview with Economic Observer that during the third quarter of this year, the four major investment themes will significantly affect the asset allocation of global capital, namely leading the future of artificial intelligence, governments increasing energy security, diversifying asset strategies to enhance portfolio resilience, and innovation and returns in Asia.

Kuang Zheng said that although the controversy over the "AI foam theory" in the capital market remains unabated, the strong performance of US technology stocks in the first quarter is making more investment institutions believe that AI is still the structural driving force for social and economic development.

On a global scale, the artificial intelligence sector may still achieve outstanding performance in the second half of the year, "Kuang Zheng analyzed. However, it should be noted that investment opportunities around AI are shifting from hardware to software applications, and ultimately will spread from upstream hardware production to midstream and downstream applications. Behind this is the gradual attention of global capital that AI big models will eventually be "monetized", but the question is through which tracks and services to achieve monetization and profitability. For example, currently some AI big model application companies focus on corporate business through AI programming, gaining rapid valuation increases and capital pursuit.

Regarding the investment opportunities for governments around the world to increase energy independence and security, Kuang Zheng believes that due to the impact of the Middle East conflict, countries will accelerate the diversification of energy supply layout. Under this trend, the new energy industry may usher in new investment opportunities. In addition, HSBC maintains a high allocation recommendation for energy stocks, citing that in a high oil price environment, the valuation, cash flow, and dividend yield of energy stocks will be highly attractive and can also hedge against oil price volatility risks.

Regarding the diversified asset strategy to enhance the resilience of investment portfolios, Kuang Zheng frankly stated that under the impact of the escalation of international geopolitical risks, a single asset is difficult to cope with market volatility risks. Especially during the Middle East conflict, traditional negative correlated assets have not fully played their role in hedging and risk mitigation, including the phased failure of risk mitigation effects of traditional stock and bond strategies and gold strategies. In this case, investors need to broaden their diversified asset allocation strategies, such as alternative investments.

Regarding investment opportunities for innovation and returns in Asia, Kuang Zheng believes that in the current global economic landscape, the Asian market is providing investment opportunities that are no less than those in the United States. The reason is that Asia, as the core region of AI and advanced manufacturing, has both AI production capacity and huge demand, and countries such as China and South Korea have global competitiveness in semiconductor, AI hardware, AI applications, and other areas.

Among them, investment opportunities in the Chinese market are particularly prominent, "said Kuang Zheng. The current policy environment in China is quite friendly, including moderately loose monetary policy and strengthened support for new quality productivity in fiscal policy. At present, HSBC continues its barbell strategy in the Chinese stock market: on the one hand, it focuses on the technology mainline, laying out hardware opportunities brought by AI demand, and paying close attention to the process of AI market transmission to the middle and lower reaches; On the other hand, there are high interest and high-quality state-owned enterprises, which can provide stable potential returns and enhance the risk resistance of investment portfolios.

HSBC expects that for the whole year, the profit growth rate of the A-share market is expected to shift towards the structural recovery track, with the highest increase in profit expectations for sectors such as new materials, energy, and information technology. The profit growth rate of the technology sector may reach 30%, and the overall profit growth rate of the A-share market may also reach about 10%.