The wealth unit of the Royal Bank of Canada has published a new report with a handful of themes that it believes will remain appealing to investors for decades to come.
Thematic investing has been an increasingly popular style for allocating assets in recent years, with a focus on secular trends that are expected to stay relevant in the foreseeable future based on powerful, structural drivers.
In RBC Wealth Management’s latest mid-2026 outlook report, it outlined six “unstoppable themes” which it views as “investable opportunities capable of delivering long-term compounding of sales, earnings, and share prices for decades”.
They include the surging “grey wave” of retirees, who have an appetite for therapies and products promising to lengthen the number of years in good health; artificial intelligence (AI) spending by tech and non-tech businesses; electricity as a dominant source of power; renewables like wind and solar energy; medical advances with transformative tools in gene-editing or protein-mapping; and defense spending due to geopolitical tensions.
“All of the above are driven by demand imperatives that show very few if any signs of abating. For at least the next two or three decades we believe they are likely to provide a reliable, exploitable tailwind for some businesses, and perhaps challenging headwinds for others,” the bank said.
Chinese AI, Japanese equities
In the shorter term, RBC Wealth Management is positive on China’s AI narrative due to competitive advantages in cost, scale, and supply chain integration, with a valuation that is relatively attractive compared to global peers. Within this space, it prefers companies in AI, humanoid robotics, and lithium batteries supply chains.
The bank is also positive on Japanese equities, which has attracted USD73.6 billion in year-to-date inflows through May with “genuine structural reforms”, including enhanced corporate governance, rising shareholder returns, and the government’s fiscal credibility. It has upgraded its 2026 price target for the Nikkei index and sees pullbacks as buying opportunities.
Although RBC Wealth Management believes that portfolios should remain committed to equities, it advises investors not to extend beyond their long-term targeted allocation.
“To manage risk, we would scrutinise holdings as some stocks in the Technology sector (especially semiconductors) have rallied sharply and could face bouts of significant volatility and/or correct meaningfully,” the bank added. “Therefore, investors should be vigilant about single-stock and sector exposures in portfolios by bringing them back into balance if they’ve drifted well out of bounds.”
