J.P. Morgan Asset Management released its eighth annual Global Alternatives Outlook, providing a 12-to-18 month outlook across key alternative asset classes, equipping investors to make tailored portfolio decisions. This year's report details our highest-conviction ideas as private markets mature into a structural mainstay of global finance.

Jed Laskowitz, Global Head of Private Markets: "As many leading companies are staying private for longer, the private markets are deep and diverse, and the opportunity for investors is immense. Our 2026 Global Alternatives Outlook leverages our more than 60-year track record investing in nearly every facet of private markets to help investors understand the opportunities, manage the risks, and build more resilient portfolios."

Anton Pil, Global Head of Alternatives Solutions: "We are experiencing a shift as hyper-globalization fades, global AI investment accelerates, and the positive correlation between stocks and bonds trends upward. In this environment, private markets will play an increasingly important role as portfolio diversifiers through real assets, and a broader access point for investors to the drivers of this structural shift through private equity and private credit."

Some of the key themes revealed across asset classes in the 2026 Alternatives Outlook include:

Global Real Estate

• Commercial real estate is entering a new phase of recovery, supported by prospective rate cuts, limited supply, and continued economic expansion.

• Nationalism is on the rise and causing an increase in demand for the high-powered industrial space, with power availability now a central factor in site selection.

• Residential markets remain structurally undersupplied, supporting resilient performance in single-family rentals, attainable multifamily, and flexible living.

Infrastructure

• Core infrastructure is at an inflection point, with capital expenditure set to materially outpace depreciation for the first time this century, driven by energy demand, energy security, and the energy transition.

• Surging energy demand, security needs, and the energy transition are driving growth and higher returns for core infrastructure, especially power utilities.

• Vertically integrated utilities are best positioned to capture immediate upside while maintaining defensive characteristics.

Transportation

• We are seeing one of the strongest asset replacement cycles in decades as aging global fleets collide with rising trade volumes.

• Transportation assets remain resilient due to the consumption needs of the global population, sustained growth in global trade volumes, and evolving trade patterns.

• Demand for modern, energy-efficient assets is notably high, yet supply is constrained by limited manufacturing capacity and costly production, creating a favorable supply-demand imbalance for lessors.

Timberland

• Timberland offers steady cashflows, inflation protection, and long-term capital appreciation driven by shifting global trade flows and increasing timberland value.

• Lower interest rates and better housing supply dynamics are helping to revitalize residential construction activity in markets such as the US and Australia – a key driver of lumber demand.

• Geopolitical tensions are reshaping wood-product trade, creating opportunities for diversified timberland portfolios as exporters adapt to new tariffs and regional restrictions.

• Transparency and standard-setting in voluntary carbon markets are also improving, bolstering confidence in high-quality forestry-based carbon projects and creating an extra value driver for investors.

Hedge Funds

• Structural macro shifts—higher rates, elevated volatility, and equity dispersion—have created an environment built for stock-pickers and tacticians.

• Managers focused on relative value, statistical arbitrage, and targeted long/short and event-driven strategies are finding renewed opportunity.

• Hedge funds are well positioned to deliver consistent and differentiated returns as we continue to see elevated single-stock volatility, low correlations, and high market volumes.

Private Equity

• Private equity is entering 2026 on firmer footing, with the small- and mid-market set to benefit as markets normalize.

• Valuation expectations are realigning and credit markets are decisively more borrower-friendly, supporting a healthier investment environment.

• A new innovation cycle is expanding the private equity opportunity set, with AI exemplifying the 'private-for-longer' trend and healthcare generating consistent exits as the scientific foundations laid in recent decades translate into market-ready therapies.

Private Credit

• The private credit market is maturing, with burgeoning secondaries and convergence with public credit markets reshaping deal terms, risk, and liquidity.

• Private credit continues to offer a healthy premium relative to public market credit, with senior-secured US direct lending remaining particularly attractive.

• Hyper-competition is driving lenders to focus on disciplined sourcing, documentation, and manager selection to capture opportunities and manage risk.