The ‘undisruptable’ growth trade that gets better the more AI spends

Resolution Capital Global Listed Infrastructure Portfolio Manager, Mark Jones, is part of the 2026 Livewire Markets Growth Series. This article and video featured in the series. You can read the original on Livewire Markets here.

For most people thinking about growth investing, global listed infrastructure hasn’t historically been the first asset class that comes to mind. Markets have spent the better part of a decade rewarding capital-light businesses (think tech), but that dynamic is shifting into a new “decade of power” – both figuratively and literally.

With the push toward energy security, developed economies’ need to electrify everything, and AI’s insatiable appetite for power, the capital-heavy end of the market is having its moment.

As part of our 2026 Growth Series, Livewire sat down with portfolio manager Mark Jones of Resolution Capital to explore why global listed infrastructure is emerging as a powerful long-term growth asset class, underpinned by accelerating earnings as infrastructure becomes a core enabler of economic growth worldwide

Infrastructure is no longer just a defensive asset

The starting point for Jones is a shift in how infrastructure fits into the broader economy. It’s no longer just a safe or boring yield play, it’s becoming a prerequisite for economic growth itself.

“Infrastructure is now seen as an enabler of economic growth.

Whether that be power infrastructure for new industry formation or transport infrastructure for urbanisation and productivity, we’re seeing opportunity globally to deploy capital for really appealing returns”, says Jones.

That shift is showing up in the earnings profile. Where infrastructure has historically delivered high single-digit earnings growth, Jones expects that to accelerate to low double-digit and even mid-teens over the next five to 20 years – the convergence of several structural trends arriving at once.

The power theme

The most immediate of those trends is electrification. Developed economies are in the process of electrifying transport, manufacturing, heating and cooling – and now AI is layering on top of that existing demand that is yet to be built out.

“‘Decade of power’ or ‘golden age of utilities’ is also what we hear from management teams that we speak to,” Jones says.

“Most developed economies of the world need to electrify everything. We can see that in transport, we can see that in heating, cooling, and in manufacturing, and now we’re seeing it in AI.”

Jones uses robotaxis as an example to illustrate the pace of change. In California, Waymo is completing 500,000 trips per day, up from zero three years ago. Every one of those vehicles is electric.

Beyond power

Electrification is only part of the picture. Jones sees a wealth of structural tailwinds across the asset class – digital infrastructure driven by data demand, water and waste tied to the circular economy, and energy security reshaping how developed economies think about their supply chains.

“Wherever there’s a need for investment in infrastructure, that’s when the asset class does well,” says Jones.

The conflict in the Middle East is a live case in point. Developed economies are simultaneously trying to secure oil and gas supply chains while accelerating the transition toward renewables, geothermal, and potentially nuclear. Each of those paths requires significant infrastructure investment.

Why more spending is good news

In most parts of the sharemarket, a big jump in capital expenditure makes investors nervous. Infrastructure works differently, Jones says.

“In global equities, when you have an increase in capital expenditure, this tends to lead to uncertainty because you don’t know if you’re going to get a return on capital.”

In infrastructure, particularly regulated utilities, the dynamic flips. The assets are monopoly-like, returns are known in advance, and the earnings growth that follows is largely locked in.

US utilities are planning to spend as much in the next five years as they did in the entire previous decade. All else equal, says Jones, that doubles earnings growth.

The risk that matters most

The biggest threat to the thesis isn’t competition or disruption. It’s whether households and governments will wear the cost of the build-out.

“When households have to pay too much for the infrastructure… governments can get involved. And when governments get involved in the pricing of infrastructure, that’s when uncertainty occurs.”

This is where the hyperscaler intervention matters. In the case of power infrastructure, the party footing the bill isn’t the average household – it’s Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

Jones argues this creates an unusual and self-reinforcing cycle – utilities earn higher revenues from big tech, household electricity bills come down, and governments have little reason to intervene on pricing.

“Infrastructure companies have higher earnings growth, households are paying less for electricity, and importantly, governments and households are happy, and we as investors receive stronger earnings growth.”

How the fund finds its positions

The fund can hold from 20 to 45 names and is deliberately concentrated. Jones explains that what earns a stock a place in the portfolio isn’t a sweeping macro call, but rather a specific, identifiable change in the risk or return profile of an individual asset.

“We look for small changes in either risk or return and then try and actively move quickly because that then is a function of the next five to 10 years.”

Jones also flags the fund’s multi-portfolio manager structure as a key part of how it avoids groupthink. Each portfolio manager runs their own portfolio independently, and the client receives the aggregate of their best ideas rather than the output of an investment committee

Where that shows up in the portfolio

Two current positions illustrate the approach. The first is Entergy (NYSE: ETR), a Louisiana-based utility and exclusive power provider to a Meta data centre that has grown from a planned two gigawatts to over seven gigawatts.

Jones puts that into context – “To contrast with what we see here in Australia, the largest data centre in Sydney is 100 megawatts…this is 700 times the size of our largest data centre.”

The second is away from the AI narrative entirely, and one which Jones calls the “Transurban of Greece.”

Jones is referring to GEK Terna (FRA: 1GT), a monopolistic Greek highway provider and toll road operator for Athens and its surrounds.

“It is a great little company which is basically trying to make that economy more productive after a period of 10 to 15 years where the government hasn’t really invested in infrastructure.”

The long view

The Resolution Capital Global Listed Infrastructure Fund (ASX: RIIF) returned over 30% in the past year. Jones calls it a “banner year” for the fund’s investors, and argues that this just demonstrates the structural shift in what infrastructure can deliver over the next decade.

“I will just contrast it with global equities. So global equities, lots of creative disruption, unparalleled competition, infrastructure, very difficult to disrupt.”

The tailwinds – decarbonisation, electrification, data demand, energy security – are all running simultaneously and require the same thing: more infrastructure. The market is still pricing much of this as a defensive, yield-focused asset class. Jones thinks that framing is increasingly out of date.

“We haven’t found a substitute yet for water or electricity.”

Click here to access information about investing in Global Listed Infrastructure on the ASX via the Resolution Capital Global Listed Infrastructure Fund – Active ETF (ASX: RIIF)