How we invest sustainably
Digital resilience in the era of AI
As digital technologies become more embedded in the global economy, their resilience is becoming a critical investment issue. We see digital resilience as a shaper of long-term value creation.
Key takeaways
- Digital resilience is becoming a defining factor in which technologies can scale successfully.
- As digital systems become more interconnected, operational disruptions are increasingly capable of creating systemic risks.
- Technology growth depends as much on resilient physical infrastructure as on digital innovation.
- Companies that combine innovation with strong governance and operational resilience may be better positioned to create long-term value.
Recent disruptions – from major software outages to powergrid failures and supply-chain shocks (see box on page 3) have underlined how dependent the global economy has become on resilient digital and physical infrastructure. As AI accelerates demand for data, computing power and electricity, the investment case for technology companies is no longer only about growth. It is also about whether that growth can be sustained securely, responsibly and reliably.
In a time when IT investment is rising rapidly (see Exhibit 1) we recognise the risks as well as the opportunities. Digital resilience spans the physical and digital foundations of technology, from infrastructure and supply chains to governance, security and societal impacts.
This paper explores why these factors are becoming increasingly important for investors and long-term value creation.
Exhibit 1: Investment in information processing equipment & software as percentage of US nominal GDP
Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Jefferies, 2026
"Right now, it’s like the AI industry has a gas pedal, but it doesn’t have a brake pedal."
Jack Clark, Co-founder Anthropic
From IT glitches to systemic shocks
Digital resilience refers to the ability to prevent, adapt to and recover from potential disruptions. It also requires organisations to operate in ways that do not harm the economy or society, for example ensuring business’ security, individual’s privacy and protection from harmful online content.
Large-scale disruptions can be triggered by a range of factors, including IT failures, connectivity outages, human error, cloud disruptions and sudden surges in demand. As digital systems become increasingly interconnected, these incidents can quickly affect critical services across economies and societies. These risks require carefully designed systems, flexible and scalable infrastructure, strong security controls, back-up systems and disaster recovery mechanisms. Even seemingly isolated failures can escalate at scale, underlining the need for robust safeguards throughout the digital ecosystem.
Digital technologies increasingly underpin economic activity, livelihoods, and social inclusion. A lack of safeguards in these areas can widen economic and societal divides along with greater political, regulatory and financial scrutiny. While we see a significant opportunity to invest in a digital future, we also see a need for greater digital resilience, across the five areas shown in Exhibit 2. Learn more about each building block.
Exhibit 2: Building blocks of a resilient digital future
Source: AllianzGI, 2026
Pressure points: faults, fractures and failures
The development of digital solutions faces several headwinds in shoring up resilience:
Rapid user adoption: Covid-19 accelerated global digitalisation by forcing households and organisations to adapt rapidly, but often without adequate preparation. Security vulnerabilities increased, exposing both individuals and systems to operational failure and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
Supply chain disruption: Growing demand for digital capabilities has exposed supply chain vulnerabilities, where sector concentration and cross-regional interdependencies can amplify risks. This is increasingly visible across microchips, data centres and IT infrastructure, particularly amid environmental and geopolitical shocks, including extreme weather events and trade tensions.
Physical climate risks: The increasing frequency of severe weather events is creating operational risks with storms, heatwaves and droughts placing more pressure on electricity system demand and supply, potentially destabilising satellite and navigation systems and energy grids.
Water demand: Critical in the technology value chain, from the manufacture of semiconductors to the cooling systems for data centres, water availability is vulnerable to climate impacts. Fluctuating water patterns are a risk to sustaining the level of technological operations in areas of high-water stress.
Understanding and mapping concentration and interdependencies are critical for effective risk management. Embedding robust third-party risk management systems into digital resilience and cybersecurity frameworks allows for active monitoring of risks across the entire value chain.
System failures, real-world fallout
In the last couple of years we have seen users and entire industry sectors crippled by digital failures:
- In 2024, Taiwan’s largest earthquake in 25 years triggered a component shortage. The country produces over 90% of advanced semiconductor chips globally1 and is a chokepoint for supply. The earthquake caused delays impacting the automotive, electronics and other sectors and contributing to significant price volatility.
- Also in 2024, a faulty software update caused an outage at cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, becoming the largest IT disruption in history, impacting airlines, banks, governments and hospitals, with an estimated USD 5.4 billion loss for Fortune 500 companies.2
- In 2025, Spain, Portugal and parts of northern France were paralysed by the “Iberian blackout” – Europe’s worst electricity blackout in two decades. Overvoltage linked to the management of electricity from multiple energy sources was identified as a primary cause. Beyond the tragic human consequences, the blackout disrupted transport and telecommunications for up to 16 hours. While several factors contributed to the failure, the investigation highlighted a broader lesson: resilience becomes increasingly important as energy systems grow more complex. This challenge is likely to intensify as AI-driven demand places additional pressure on electricity networks.
Overall, this raises critical unresolved questions about meeting growing digitalisation needs sustainably, while simultaneously building resilience to shocks stemming from external disruption – see Exhibit 3.
Exhibit 3: Global dependency on underwater digital infrastructure
Source: Telegeography.com Submarine cable FAQs, 2026
The societal dimension of resilience
Digital resilience is not just about operational performance of products and services, but also safety, inclusion and fairness in addressing a range of social challenges.
Increased electricity requirements can influence both the availability and affordability of energy, with direct impacts on households, particularly vulnerable communities. At the same time, digital access is increasingly a livelihood essential, but the speed and cost of keeping pace is already creating deep digital divides – notably across technological device and data access, as well as areas like remote banking and basic medical technologies to support patient care.
Health and well-being is an area of growing concern with evidence pointing to the negative effects of excessive screen time, addiction and irresponsible content. Risks include poor sleep quality and reduced physical inactivity while social media is under intense scrutiny, and restricted by age limits in several countries.
Digital tools can generate significant productivity and transition benefits, but this also raises concerns about large-scale displacement of jobs, and fast-emerging new skills to keep pace with the technological revolution. Proactive investment in upskilling across the development chain (education through to employment) is required.
The full extent of the social implications from the scale of technological developments are fast-emerging, contributing to our view of digital resilience as essential to the long-term sustainability of investee companies.
Next steps: financing resilience at scale
As investors in the technology sector, we have identified three critical requirements for a comprehensive integration of opportunities and risks into technology investing.
1. Integrate digital resilience considerations into investment analysis
Digital resilience is a core pillar in the investment case for technology, particularly in relation to strategy, capital allocation, senior-level expertise, operational monitoring, and regular strategic reassessments. Investment conviction should be informed by a company’s ability to mitigate, withstand and recover from potential operational interruptions while preserving its licence to operate. The potential liabilities associated with outages or cyberattacks, as well as the regulatory and political responses they can trigger, can be substantial.
For investors, digital resilience is increasingly a marker of business quality. Companies that proactively manage operational, cybersecurity and societal risks may be better positioned to maintain trust, meet regulatory expectations and sustain long-term growth. Regulatory frameworks such as the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA3) increasingly support this objective by setting expectations on risk management, reporting, testing and oversight.
2. Allocate capital toward resilient business models
AI is an obvious example here, with a business case that is gaining momentum across most sectors. While the investment industry is still considering how best to qualify and quantify the core principles of a responsible approach to AI, evolving litigation, reputational risks and rapid AI development are already shifting investment towards more resilient models. This will only increase as AI valuations rise and capex expands, and as the rollout is financed by both equity and fixed income investors.
But the investment opportunity extends beyond AI and semiconductors. We also see strategic value in resilient digital infrastructure – particularly within the healthcare and energy sectors, industrial software, cybersecurity, cloud technologies, automation, connectivity and data management solutions.
3. Push for enhanced governance and accountability
Our framework in Exhibit 4 emphasises governance and accountability mechanisms for digital resilience. Active investor engagement plays a role here – complementing new guidance and frameworks – to encourage increased transparency, disclosures and strategic prioritisation of resilience through the value chain.
In 2024, we began engaging portfolio companies on AI use, focusing on business materiality and portfolio relevance. In one case, we engaged a US financial services company on its approach to developing AI use cases, recommending stronger reporting processes to enhance governance.
Exhibit 4: Framework for foundations of digital resilience
Source: AllianzGI Sustainability Research, 2026
"The greater the gap between the opportunities and safeguards of societal impacts from technology, the greater the likelihood of intervention from regulators or other bodies."
Mélissa Bourassi, Sustainability Analyst
The investment case for resilience
Digital enablement has accelerated since 2020, rapidly expanding the opportunity set for technology investors. But opportunity without resilience can quickly become exposure. In our view, the pace of innovation has not yet been matched by safeguards across climate, nature, infrastructure and society. For investors, this makes digital resilience more than an operational issue: it is a test of capital allocation, risk management and long-term value creation. Financing the next phase of technology growth requires investors to back companies that can scale responsibly, withstand disruption and maintain the trust on which digital ecosystems depend.
1 US International Trade Administration, Semiconductors including chip design for AI, 2025
2 Fortune, 2024
3 In technology and finance, DORA is a major European Union cybersecurity law designed to ensure the financial sector can withstand, respond to, and recover from ICT-related disruptions and threats. It enforces strict, uniform rules on risk management, incident reporting, and third-party vendor oversight for banks, insurers, and investment firms.
