While the opportunity for growth is clear, investments in RAAI are still in the early stages. US investors have currently invested about $3B into funds that are focused on RAAI—less than a third of the $10B that Japanese and European investors have allocated to dedicated funds. And those numbers are expected to grow rapidly in the coming year. The question isn’t if investing in RAAI makes sense. The question is how.
While there are now a handful of funds that offer the opportunity to invest in the RAAI revolution directly, it’s clear that not all funds are created equally. Funds that invest in a short list of large-cap stocks in the sector have seen returns that are correlated with the general market highs, but in today’s dynamic environment it is is it very possible that the largest players will change nearly as quickly as the technologies themselves.
As well, because of their reliance on only the largest players, these funds are likely to maintain their correlation with the market when values begin to tumble. A more prudent option is a fund that offers broad exposure to the global value chain by tracking the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index.
Based on research and analysis by some of today’s leading experts and academics in RAAI, the Index includes not only large-cap participants, but also providers of key enabling technologies (sensing, computing, and actuation) as well as providers of applications that deliver capabilities that are applied across multiple industries (factory automation, surgical robotics, food and agriculture, 3D printing, logistics automation, and more).
Across industries and around the globe, companies are revising and rethinking their own strategies to cement their futures in a world that is dictated by robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence. The financial markets have already recognized this shift and have begun to reward those who are placing their bets on the future. For investors who are seeking a strategy to capture those rewards—and truly future-proof their portfolios—the time is now to invest in all that RAAI has to offer.
The following article was republished with permission from ROBO Global.