Beyond the Chips: How Artificial Intelligence Is Re-Wiring Entire Value-Chains, and the Companies Powering the Shift

When investors hear “AI,” their minds often jump to the handful of high-profile platform companies training enormous language models, like Alphabet, or designing essential chips, like NVIDIA. Yet the technology’s ripple effects spread well beyond the foundational tech.

According to the IEA’s Global Energy Review 2025, surging demand from data centers and AI workloads has become “one of the largest sources of incremental electricity consumption worldwide.” That growth in computational power is simultaneously driving breakthroughs in biotechnology, manufacturing automation, and resource-efficient infrastructure.

At Reynders, McVeigh, we believe in investing where innovation meets long-term, sustainable growth. We see attractive opportunities in both the backbone leaders of manufacturing and in the periphery of providers enabling AI’s wider benefits. Three portfolio names illustrate the breadth of the theme:

Applied Materials — The Fabrication Backbone of the AI Age

Santa Clara, California-based Applied Materials sits at the very front end of the AI supply chain, selling the deposition, etch, and inspection gear that every major foundry needs to turn raw silicon into the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) devices now driving generative-AI workloads. Orders tied to critical components spiked in fiscal 2024 as chipmakers rushed to add capacity, a surge management directly attributes to “artificial-intelligence applications [that] require processing lots of data.” Because the company already controls a large swath of the specialized equipment market on which chipmakers rely, it can monetize that wave across almost every major process step.

Policy tailwinds reinforce the thesis. U.S. and EU CHIPS Acts together earmark more than $80 billion for onshore manufacturing, capital that will be spent on precisely the kind of advanced equipment Applied Materials sells. Financially, the company brings a fortress balance sheet—$6 billion in net cash and an “A” credit rating—providing resilience against inevitable semiconductor cycles and occasional volatility. In short, by helping chipmakers squeeze more computing power out of each watt and continue shrinking the size of their processors, Applied Materials is contributing to lower overall energy consumption, making it a cornerstone holding for investors who want exposure to AI’s upside and a migration path toward lower-carbon digital infrastructure.

RELX — Applying AI to the World’s Most Trusted Knowledge Bases

RELX isn’t selling chips or servers; it sells critical answers in real time. Among the United Kingdom-based company’s key business lines is risk analytics, with tools that help banks verify who’s opening accounts, flag suspicious transactions with ThreatMetrix, and even stop “code verification” scams with Active Call Detection that checks whether a phone is on a live call as a purchase is attempted. It also helps auto and home insurers price policies by combining public records with other signals, a need that’s growing as more activity shifts to mobile and online. Customers are paying for that capability: organic sales rose 7% in 2024, and RELX highlights long-term demand in fraud prevention, identity solutions, and due diligence workflows.

In science, medicine, and law, RELX is building generative AI into trusted datasets where accuracy matters most. The cutting-edge Scopus AI gives researchers conversational search across curated abstracts, while ClinicalKey AI offers physicians quick, source‑linked guidance at the point of care. In legal, Lexis+ AI and the new Protégé assistant speed research and can draft discovery requests, briefs, and even deposition questions from case facts. Because these tools sit on RELX’s own vetted databases—not the open internet—they’re designed to reduce the errors common in generic AI searches.

In the context of this investment theme, RELX shows how AI’s broader impact extends beyond the servers that power it, embedding advanced analytics into critical sectors and turning trusted data into faster, more accurate decisions.

Enovix — Extending AI’s Reach by Stretching Every Watt-Hour

Artificial-intelligence workloads are no longer confined to cloud data centers; they’re migrating into smartphones, smart glasses, and other edge devices where battery life is the gating factor. Enovix of Fremont, California tackles that constraint with a proprietary silicon-anode cell that boosts energy density 22–30 percent over today’s best lithium-ion batteries while still supporting fast-charge rates. The company has already shipped samples to seven of the world’s top eight phone manufacturers, pointing to a $12 billion handset battery market ripe for higher-capacity cells.

Demand signals are building. In January, Enovix received a sizable prepaid order from a “global AI and immersive-tech leader,” underscoring how next-generation wearables will depend on energy-dense cells to keep vision and language models running untethered. As mobile AI features such as conversational search and real-time translation proliferate, the company expects power-hungry applications to drive a step-change in battery requirements.

AI-powered software and features consume more power and thus require more efficient sources to draw on to feed this hunger. With longer-lasting, quicker-charging batteries, next generation devices like handhelds and wearables get the batteries they require to meet the demands of AI-powered features without sacrificing performance.

Competitive pressure from larger cell manufacturers is real, but the firm’s early-mover advantage in commercial-grade silicon-anode architecture positions it as a vital enabler of more efficient and powerful batteries and edge-AI adoption—and a natural complement to Applied Materials’ chip-efficiency gains.

Putting the Pieces Together: AI, Infrastructure and Sustainability

Every new AI cluster requires not just GPUs but power and cooling equipment, grid connections, and increasingly sophisticated water-management systems. Vertiv, for example, estimates U.S. data center power demand could grow ~10 percent annually through 2030. As investors, we look for companies positioned to meet that demand responsibly, whether through more efficient semiconductor tools (Applied Materials), advanced analytics for critical industries (RELX), or cutting-edge energy-dense battery technologies (Enovix).

Together, these businesses demonstrate that the real economic impact of AI will be measured not only in teraflops but in the tangible systems that sustain modern life: energy grids, essential data, and greener chemistry. By allocating capital to the enablers of those systems, we aim to capture durable growth while advancing the broader mission of building a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy.

DISCLOSURE: Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, LLC (“the Firm”) is a registered investment adviser. Registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This paper is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security.

The companies referenced are presented solely as illustrative examples of the themes addressed in this paper. These companies do not represent all securities purchased, sold, or recommended for clients, and it should not be assumed that any investment in these companies has been or will be profitable. A complete list of the Firm’s recommendations over the past 12 months is available upon request.

Any performance information or sustainability-related commentary is provided for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as a forecast or guarantee of future results. Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations and are subject to change without notice; actual results may differ materially. The information and sources used are believed to be reliable, but their accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. The Firm undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained herein. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Clients and prospective clients should consult their adviser regarding their individual circumstances.