When Americans observe the world of football they know where to go, they know where to invest, they know how to make money, they know how to get results. See the case of Atalanta (American). See the case of Fiorentina (American). See the case of AC Milan winning the championship (American). See the case of the new Inter (for the moment American). See the case of the newly promoted Parma (American). But when Americans arrive in Italy with the intention of investing in a conspicuous, massive, powerful way, are we sure that they find themselves in the same conditions they find themselves in when they watch football?
Step back, baby, before we get to some tasty news. Larry Fink He’s probably the most important person you haven’t heard enough about. He is one of the most powerful men in the world, manages the most famous investment fund on the planet, has a personal wealth of 1.2 billion dollars, governs a company that manages around 10 trillion dollars, invests a third of the assets of the fund in Europe and in recent months he has shown that he has a special interest in our country, an unexpected passion for Meloni and an unexpected confidence in the future of Italy. In 2022, he told Corriere della Sera, after Meloni’s victory, while the opposition parties were predicting gloomy scenarios for the Italian economy, that he had heard “more optimism than concerns from the leaders of the business world” for the birth of a government very unbalanced to the right. A year later, Fink gave positive assessments of Meloni’s first year.
On the same occasion, in October 2023, he said he was satisfied with the investments made by BlackRock in Italian banks (in Italy BlackRock has shareholdings, among other things, in Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Enel and Snam and Bpm). And on the same occasion, interviewed by Milano Finanza, in addition to hinting that BlackRock is willing to support the government and Italian companies in some infrastructure investments, he launched a double message to keep in mind: “It will be interesting to see how the government will work with the private sector to encourage growth” and “we need to reverse the paradigm of those who think of using public funds to encourage growth, we need to increase private investments”. Context is important, so is the news. And the news is that, in great secrecy, and with a few selected interlocutors, BlackRock’s number one organized a private meeting in Milan on June 6th with some important Italian managers, called to the table by the former number one of Unicredit Federico Ghizzoni. A limited lunch, of which some important government officials became aware even if they were not directly involved, useful for evaluating possible new operations in our country (BlackRock, as written yesterday by Corriere della Sera, wants to purchase 10 percent of the Enilive company to enter the car sharing and distributor business). Fink is understandably optimistic about Italy’s future for a set of reasons that are easy to understand: despite a very high debt, Italy has a stable government, a cohesive majority, widespread social peace, economic growth higher than that of Germany, an impeccable geopolitical positioning and a monstrous amount of money which, thanks to a blessed algorithm, will rain down on Italy in the coming years.
But beyond the context of stability, Fink will probably ask, what else can Italy offer to a fund interested in investing in our country? Fink will probably ask himself: but on justice, has this government done something concrete or not to help investors invest more in Italy? Negative answer. But regarding bureaucracy, has this government done something concrete or not to encourage investors to invest more in Italy? Negative answer. But on the tax front, has this government done something concrete or not to encourage investors to invest more in Italy? Negative answer. But on infrastructure, again, a sector that Larry Fink considers strategic for evaluating long-term investments, is Italy offering opportunities to those who want to invest in our country or not? And finally, on energy, on nuclear power, on innovation, on artificial intelligence, can Italy offer anything more than a pat on the back to those who want to set foot in our country? A few days ago, during the B7 convened in Rome, a meeting between global business giants to discuss what it would be reasonable to expect from the G7 in favor of businesses, Larry Fink launched an interesting message: there cannot be ecological transition and decarbonisation without use massive nuclear power and using this form of technology is important both to be able to be credible and non-ideological on the digital transition and to be able to use artificial intelligence to its full potential one day. BlackRock, Reuters wrote a few days ago, is in talks with various governments about ways to finance critical investments to support artificial intelligence because Fink sees artificial intelligence as a big boost for global productivity. Fink’s thesis: “AI data centers will require more energy than anything we could have ever imagined, the G7 countries don’t have enough power, and it’s likely that data centers will be built where power supply is cheapest.”
Can it be said that for those who want to invest in artificial intelligence, Italy, like the rest of Europe, is a welcoming place, where capital flows and opportunities flow? One fact above all. The most important public investment linked to artificial intelligence is the one made by Cdp Venture Capital which it will employ one billion euros of resources out of the total of 8 billion foreseen in the 2024-2028 industrial plan for the development of AI. Less than what was allocated in the last budget maneuver on the pension package. Welcome Larry Fink.
