Wealthy Entrepreneurs Plan $367 Billion in AI Spending, HSBC Report Finds

HSBC’s Global Entrepreneurial Wealth Report 2026 describes wealthy business owners as optimistic about their prospects and committed to investing in AI. Four in five respondents—79%—planned to increase AI investment in their main business over the following year. The group’s planned spend totalled $367 billion, an average allocation of 21% of annual revenue. These are reported plans, not confirmed expenditures. 1

Planned AI spending is tied to growth and productivity

The report presents AI as a business investment, not just a technology experiment. HSBC and Ipsos describe entrepreneurs as looking to AI for growth, productivity and longer-term wealth creation. 13

The headline figures indicate the scale of respondents’ intentions: 79% planned to raise investment, and their expected allocation averaged 21% of annual revenue. The $367 billion total is the survey group’s combined planned investment, not a forecast of AI spending across all businesses. 1

Hiring expectations lean toward adding staff

Available reporting says more surveyed business owners expected AI investment to lead to staff additions than job cuts. It does not provide a reliable comparison figure in the supplied material, so the finding should be treated as a directional summary rather than a quantified hiring forecast. 8

Confidence is high, but trust findings are not detailed here

The report says 95% of respondents were positive about their business prospects, although the proportion describing themselves as “very positive” had softened slightly. That confidence sits alongside the planned AI investment, rather than proving that AI alone caused the optimism. 6

Trust is identified as a theme in HSBC’s report overview, but the available excerpts do not give a specific result or measure of entrepreneurs’ trust in AI. HSBC has also published a separate survey of affluent and high-net-worth investors; its findings concern a different survey and should not be substituted for the entrepreneur report’s results. 214

What the report says about wealth—and what remains unclear

HSBC’s overview describes entrepreneurs as showing a stronger pull toward home markets and a more diversified approach to personal portfolios. The material available here does not substantiate specific findings on dealmaking plans, cross-border mobility or financial concerns, so those topics cannot be compared in detail with the AI and business-outlook results. 2

Read the figures as survey intentions

The report draws on insights from more than 3,000 business owners around the world. HSBC’s release presents the AI figures as plans for the coming year; they do not show how much respondents ultimately spent or whether expected hiring changes occurred. The available source material also does not specify the survey’s fieldwork dates or list all markets included, which limits how precisely its geographic scope can be assessed. 12