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In this milestone edition, we explore how the U.S. is cementing its dominance through an aggressive concentration of AI funding.

We also analyse the massive supply chain automation pivot at Walmart, the fracturing of European electricity costs, and the key relationship between falling interest rates and real estate performance.

Now, let’s dive into the insights.

— Insights Team, Rwazi

Tracking global AI investment over the last five years shows a consolidation of technological power. In 2021, the United States directed $61 billion toward AI, representing 63% of the global total compared to the rest of the world’s $35 billion. Fast forward to 2025, and that gap has not just widened, it has fundamentally detached.

Our data analysis shows U.S. funding surging to $159 billion, while the rest of the world has stagnated at $43 billion. This gives the U.S. nearly 80% of all global AI capital.

This hyper-concentration of investment, especially the massive jumps in 2024 ($87B) and 2025 ($159B), shows a shift in global power dynamics.

Interest rates are the gravitational pull of real estate returns. When borrowing costs fall, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) historically experience performance spikes. This is because financing becomes cheaper and income-producing properties suddenly look far more attractive than fixed-income bonds.

A review of the Federal Funds Effective Rate versus the All REITs index provides a clear visual context. When rates plummeted to near-zero (0.05% to 0.09%) throughout 2020 and 2021, the REIT index surged from the 125-range up to an aggressive peak of 186.66 by late 2021.

Conversely, as the Fed aggressively hiked rates up to 5.33% through 2023 and early 2024 to combat inflation, REIT performance compressed, dropping back down to 138.99 in late 2023. With the current rate tapering down to 4.29% by mid-2025, and further rate cuts expected into 2026, the cost of capital is finally loosening its grip on property valuations.

The European energy market has violently split into two. While household electricity prices decreased in 13 EU countries during the second half of 2023 compared to the prior year, the remaining nations experienced severe price shocks.

In local currencies, the Netherlands suffered the most extreme impact, reporting an 86% spike in household electricity costs, followed closely by Czechia (+83%), Poland (+35%), and Germany (+20%).

Also, countries that benefited heavily from raw market dynamics saw massive relief, with prices plummeting in Denmark (-39%), Spain (-30%), and Sweden (-20%). When standardised to the Euro, the geographical divide is evident: a household in Germany pays a crippling €40.2 per 100 kWh, while a household in Hungary pays just €11.3 for the same utility.

Walmart is aggressively rewriting the economics of retail logistics. The retail giant has announced that its capital expenditure on supply chain automation will hit its absolute peak over the next year.

The ultimate goal is to structurally lower marginal costs and ruthlessly expand profit margins in an increasingly hostile, price-sensitive consumer environment.

Currently, 50% of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce fulfillment volume is entirely automated, and 60% of its physical stores are receiving automated freight. To contextualize this arms race, rival Amazon is pushing to automate 75% of its entire operation. For Walmart, inventory and labor remain the two largest overheads.

A prime example is their Opelousas, Louisiana distribution center, where a $330 million modernization investment entirely shifted the local workforce away from manual sorting and into high-skilled robotics management.

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