Italy’s political stability wins over major global investors

Political stability is… a significant factor in a country’s appeal to investors. Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, visited Palazzo Chigi on Monday, further confirming that Italy is currently politically stable and, therefore, an attractive destination for investors.

• This is particularly true for BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, which already has investments in Italy worth over €10 billion, including stakes in Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as government-involved energy companies Eni and Enel. The Italian government has recently approved BlackRock’s acquisition of a 3% stake in Leonardo.
• Last week, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with the CEOs of leading companies, including Sundar Pichai of Google-Alphabet, Greg Brown of Motorola, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Elon Musk of Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Musk also presented her with the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizens Award.

Two key points… have emerged from Meloni’s recent meetings, particularly her discussion with Fink.

• First, it is crucial for a government composed of political forces that have previously focused on opposing global finance to maintain positive relations with the financial world.
• Second, the Meloni government aims to promote cooperation between the public and private sectors, as demonstrated by its adoption of the Mattei Plan, which advocates for an “equal partnership” with Africa.

Data centres and energy. The discussions between Meloni and Fink centred around data centres and supporting energy infrastructures.

• As a result of the meeting, a decision was made to establish a small working group, coordinated by Palazzo Chigi (the Prime Minister’s Office), dedicated to implementing these development projects.
• On Wednesday, Meloni welcomed Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, to continue the discussions.
  • Microsoft announced in a statement that it will invest €4.3 billion ($4.75 billion) over the next two years to enhance artificial intelligence infrastructure and cloud capacity in Italy.
  • Recently, Microsoft and BlackRock announced their plans to jointly invest $30 billion in an artificial intelligence project, which involves constructing data centres and energy infrastructures to support this technology.

Road to AI. To ensure Italy’s prominent role in the artificial intelligence sector, it may be advisable to focus on hardware rather than software.

• However, the construction of data centres requires a significant amount of energy, with some consuming more power than entire African countries.
• This is why BlackRock is closely monitoring the ongoing Italian debate on fourth and fifth-generation nuclear power.