Less optimism

Investors active in Germany are significantly more cautious about the global economic outlook than they were last year. PwC's Global Investor Survey 2025 shows that technology is named as the top investment sector, with a growing focus on artificial intelligence.

The results of the PwC Global Investor Survey 2025, for which 1,074 investors from 26 countries and regions (including 498 investors active in Germany) were surveyed, clearly show that technology and resilience remain key topics for investors – while expectations for global economic growth remain subdued.

The importance of technology for the competitiveness of companies is particularly crucial for investors: 92 percent of those surveyed want companies to intensify their investments in technical transformation – a significant increase from 73 percent last year. 61 percent of global investors cite technology as the most attractive investment segment for the next three years, same as last year. Among investors active in Germany, this figure is even higher, at 71 percent.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is convincing more and more investors with its operational and financial advantages. 86 percent see it as a driver of greater efficiency (previous year: 63 percent). According to 71 percent of respondents, profitability also benefits from AI (previous year: 62 percent). In addition, 66 percent expect AI to increase sales (previous year: 63 percent). The willingness to invest in companies undergoing comprehensive AI transformation has also risen slightly, from 75 percent to 78 percent. The greatest benefit expected from AI is cost reduction (64 percent). However, many investors still see shortcomings in transparency: Only 37 percent believe that companies disclose their AI strategies sufficiently.

Asia-Pacific is considered the top investment region (76 percent), followed by North America-Caribbean (71 percent) and Europe (55 percent). Respondents active in Germany are more optimistic about Europe (66 percent).

With regard to global economic growth, investors active in Germany are now significantly more cautious than in the previous year: only 32 percent expect moderate to significant growth in 2026 (previous year: 49 percent). Although global investors' expectations are lower, they have improved compared to the previous year. While only 20 percent expected moderate to significant growth in the previous year, the figure for this year is already at 28 percent.

In addition, risk expectations are rising: 55 percent see cyber risks as a high or very high problem for their portfolio companies (previous year: 36 percent), followed by technological disruption (53 percent), inflation (44 percent), macroeconomic volatility (43 percent), and geopolitical conflicts (42 percent).

The importance of corporate resilience has continued to grow. 92 percent see technological transformation as the key to becoming more resilient to crises (previous year: 86 percent).

Capital expenditure on cybersecurity (88 percent), business model agility (73 percent), regulatory compliance (66 percent), and robust supply chain management (64 percent) are also seen as key resilience factors.

Eight out of ten respondents expect companies to significantly increase their spending on research and development and capital investments (82 percent). M&A activity (over 75 percent) and strategic partnerships (70 percent) are also expected to increase.

More information on the results of the Global Investor Survey can be found here. You can find out how international CEOs view the future on our website shortly.