The capital market is starting to act ahead of the curve. According to a large-scale analysis, stocks of companies that investors consider potential beneficiaries of artificial intelligence grow on average 0.64% faster per week than stocks of other market participants. This persistent gap in returns has been dubbed the "AI premium."
To identify this effect, in-depth work was conducted with a data array covering 380 trillion tokens collected by the OpenRouter platform from January 2024 to April 2026. This dataset includes over 400 models, from GPT and Claude to Deepseek, and reflects approximately 2% of global monthly AI consumption.
How the "AI Premium" Was Calculated
Researchers developed a special indicator — the "AI factor" — which weekly records changes in global neural network consumption. Companies were then divided into two groups: those whose stocks are sensitive to the growth in AI popularity, and those whose value hardly reacts to such changes.
The result proved telling: stocks in the first group yielded investors approximately 0.64% more per week. At first glance, the figure seems insignificant, but in the long term, it creates a colossal gap. The stock market constantly revalues assets based on future expectations, not current financial performance.
Who Benefits?
The key finding is that the "AI premium" has extended far beyond the technology sector. Not only IT giants receive higher returns, but also retailers, consumer goods manufacturers, and even representatives of heavy industry. Investors believe that AI will increase labor productivity across all areas of business.
Another important aspect is geography. The bulk of the premium is concentrated in the USA and Europe, where infrastructure and development are centered. In China and emerging markets, this effect is significantly weaker.
Finally, the user structure also plays a decisive role. The premium is formed not by the mass segment, but by the professional one: complex long queries and paid subscriptions. Investors value the depth of technology integration, not superficial use.
Expert opinion: This analysis confirms that the market has moved from the "hype" stage to the "rational selection" stage. Investors are no longer buying everything indiscriminately but are choosing companies that, in their opinion, can effectively integrate AI into their business processes. For crypto investors, this is a signal: projects that can prove their applicability in the real sector (for example, through decentralized computing power or AI agents) may also receive their own "premium."