Why High-Net-Worth Investors Are Pivoting to AI and HealthTech in 2026

Investment ambitions across the EU for AI and HealthTech are expansive. The EU’s InvestAI initiative aims to mobilise €200 billion for artificial intelligence, including funding for major AI infrastructure. The EU’s InvestAI initiative aims to mobilise €200 billion for artificial intelligence, including funding for major AI infrastructure.

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank Group have also launched BioTechEU to mobilise €10 billion for biotech and life sciences in 2026 and 2027.

That investment push comes as AI and healthcare are also becoming increasingly popular among wealthy private investors globally. The UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, for example, also found that 65% of family offices were already invested in AI, and 33% were allocated to AI-enabled healthcare.

Below, we’ll explore why so much private capital is moving towards AI and HealthTech.

Investing in AI and HealthTech in 2026

The scale of the EU’s investment and infrastructure plans shows how strategically important AI has become. Infrastructure is one of the clearest examples. In July 2026, the EU requested up to seven AI Gigafactories, backed by up to €10 billion in EU and national funding and expected to unlock at least €20 billion in additional private investment across the Union.

Life sciences are also an important part of the EU economy, already contributing nearly €1.5 trillion in value and supporting 29 million jobs. The EU is now trying to increase investment further through initiatives such as BioTechEU, which is designed to mobilise €10 billion for biotechnology and life sciences investment during 2026 and 2027.

The European Commission’s wider life sciences strategy also includes measures to make it easier to fund multi-country clinical trials and €300 million to stimulate the procurement of life sciences innovations, including next-generation vaccines and affordable cancer solutions.

As investment moves into high-growth sectors, investors can also explore private-market opportunities through firms such as Top Business Ventures, which operates across venture capital, private equity and real estate markets.

AI and HealthTech Sector Growth

The EU has a massive life sciences industry with major research institutions, healthcare systems, and rapidly expanding AI infrastructure, which helps explain investor interest.

By April 2026, 19 AI Factories had been deployed across European supercomputers, supported by 13 regional AI Factory antennas, giving researchers, startups and businesses greater access to AI computing capacity. EU and participating EuroHPC countries have committed more than €2.6 billion to the AI Factories and Antennas initiative.

Then you’ve got the healthcare side. The European Health Data Space is designed to make health data easier to access and reuse securely across the EU for research, innovation and regulatory purposes, creating potentially valuable infrastructure for areas such as medical research and AI development.

Other EU projects include building specialist datasets, including Cancer Image Europe, which is expected to provide access to 60 million cancer images by the end of 2026, and the 1+ Million Genomes initiative, which aims to provide secure access to genomic and associated clinical data.

Interestingly, the EU is also trying to move AI from research into clinical settings. In 2026, the European Commission made €9 million available for two large-scale pilots of AI-powered medical imaging, covering technologies such as X-rays, CT scans, MRI, PET and ultrasound.

For investors, the attraction is that HealthTech is moving beyond laboratory research into real-world clinical testing and EU-backed deployment programmes.

Massive Capital Rotation From High-Net-Worth Investors

It’s difficult to track exactly what every high-net-worth individual is investing in. Much private investment isn’t publicly disclosed.

Family offices tell us the most. UBS surveyed 307 family offices across more than 30 markets in 2026. For the first time, 60% said they planned to change their strategic asset allocation over the following 12 months. AI was already the most popular investment niche, with 65% allocated to it. Another 33% had exposure to AI-enabled healthcare, while 25% were investing around longevity.

For an international high-net-worth investor seeking AI exposure outside Silicon Valley, the EU offers opportunities across AI software, semiconductors, computing infrastructure, biotechnology, drug discovery, medical technology and digital health.

The shift isn’t necessarily wealthy investors throwing everything into AI startups because there is some caution. AI company valuations can be high, startups fail, and healthcare products can face lengthy development and regulatory processes, including EU rules governing medicines and medical devices.

AI companies operating in the EU must follow the strict AI Act, and AI-based medical technologies can additionally fall under European medical-device rules.

What AI and HealthTech Are Prioritising

AI is now far broader than ChatGPT-style tools. Claude lovers will tell you that. Across the EU, investment, research funding and policy support are increasingly focused on areas such as:

• AI computing infrastructure
• Semiconductors
• Data centres
• Drug discovery
• Medical diagnostics
• Health data infrastructure and interoperability
• Clinical trials
• Personalised medicine
• Automation
• AI-enabled medical devices

The EU’s AI Act targets areas including precision medicine, prevention, medical diagnosis, clinical trials, treatment decision-making, and more efficient healthcare workflows.

Healthcare is particularly interesting because AI can potentially be used at several stages of research and treatment, with areas such as medical diagnostics and drug discovery among the applications the EU identified.

The European AI in Science Strategy supports this through RAISE, a Europe-wide initiative that pools computing power, data, talent, and research funding to accelerate AI-enabled scientific breakthroughs. Horizon Europe is backing its pilot with €107 million.

The strategy also includes €600 million from Horizon Europe to expand scientists’ access to computing capacity and aims to increase Horizon Europe’s annual AI investment to more than €3 billion.

Will AI Reshape Healthcare and Benefit Investors?

AI will probably reshape parts of healthcare, but that doesn’t mean every company putting ‘AI’ in its pitch deck will become a good investment.

That said, the EU offers massive opportunities.

The EU combines major healthcare systems, universities, pharmaceutical and biotech industries with increasingly connected health-data and research infrastructure. The European Commission is also actively trying to make the bloc more attractive for AI-driven life sciences investment, with its life sciences strategy aiming to make the EU the world’s most attractive place for life sciences by 2030.

Money is going into computing infrastructure, research, and life sciences, while EU programmes support real-world testing of AI in areas such as cancer and cardiovascular screening.

But healthcare is also difficult. For example, drug discovery can and does take years and still end with a drug failing during development. AI companies also need enough computing power and high-quality data for their products to work.

With EU initiatives aiming to mobilise €200 billion for AI and €10 billion for biotech and life sciences, alongside wealthy private investors increasing their exposure to AI and AI-enabled healthcare, it’s easy to see why the two sectors are attracting so much attention in 2026.