Financial markets are rewarding companies that are well positioned to benefit from widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) with higher returns, according to a new Yale-led analysis of 380 trillion AI tokens, one of the largest datasets of real-world AI consumption ever studied.

The difference in stock returns between companies with the most and least AI exposure is substantial — about 0.64% per week, a financial benefit the researchers call the “AI Premium.” 

And it’s not just tech companies that are seeing their stock prices rise as AI adoption increases, but also consumer-facing sectors and capital-intensive industries, the study finds. This suggests that investors believe that many types of businesses stand to…