AI boom rippling across to Britain’s pound, Swedish crown

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – The boom in investment in artificial intelligence is starting to be felt for the first time in currency markets across Europe, and analysts reckon the Swedish crown and sterling stand to benefit the most.
Trading in the almost $10 trillion-a-day FX markets this year has been driven by broad dollar weakness given tariff-related concerns and U.S. rate cut expectations.
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But dig deeper and the impact of AI, which has helped drive stocks to record highs, is rippling across to currencies.
According to JPMorgan, the resilience of the Swedish crown , or krona, and sterling in recent months may be partially attributable to tech as Sweden and Britain stand out on measures of AI investment and their currencies are receiving a tailwind from this dynamic, even if only a small one.
By one measure, the UK and Sweden received just over $4 billion each last year in private AI investments, ranking third and fourth in a Stanford University AI index of biggest beneficiaries of such investments, behind the United States and China.
Sweden’s krona is the strongest-performing major European currency against a weak dollar so far this year, having climbed almost 15%. Sterling has rallied 7%.
Dissecting the exact impact of AI on currency moves is hard, analysts say, given other factors at play such as interest rate expectations or fiscal unease, especially with sterling.