AI's growth is just getting started, BlackRock's thematic ETF head says

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BlackRock expects infrastructure and cybersecurity plays to shine in 2025.

Jay Jacobs, the firm's U.S. head of thematic and active ETFs, cites the artificial intelligence boom as a major catalyst.

«It's still very early in the AI adoption cycle,» he told CNBC's «ETF Edge» this week.

According to Jacobs, AI companies need to build out their data centers. Plus, keeping that data safe is also a sound investment play for the new year.

«If you think about your data, you want to spend more on cybersecurity as it gets more valuable,» he said. «We think this is really going to benefit the cybersecurity [and the] software community which is seeing very rapid revenue growth based off of this AI.»

Jacobs also sees a wider impact in terms of the supporting infrastructure.

«I think what people forget is kind of, magical as technology is, there's real physical things on the ground that run that technology, whether it's power, whether it's data centers and real estate, whether it's chips. It's not just something that lives in the ether, in the cloud, there's real physical things that have to happen, and that means energy, that means more materials like copper, that means more real estate. You really have to think about kind of the physical infrastructure that underlies it,» he added.

So, for Jacobs, the theme is widening one's investment scope.

«It's not just about megacap tech names. There's other semiconductor companies, there's other data center companies, there's other software companies that are benefiting from the rise of this theme,» he said.

Jacobs cited BlackRock's iShares Future AI & Tech ETF (ARTY) and iShares AI Innovation and Tech Active ETF (BAI) as potential ways to benefit from the rise in AI. The