By Patricio Danziger, founder and CIO of Eternal Capital
Those who manage money across borders spend their days building a mental map of the world: which regions are inexpensive, which technologies are indispensable, which materials will drive the future and which governments are about to change. Among the many trends competing for attention, four themes stand out as particularly influential, and together they say a great deal about the decade ahead.
Political cycles
The first theme is closer to home and is political. Across Latin America, the pendulum has clearly moved from left-leaning governments toward the right, creating opportunities in markets that the previous cycle had left inexpensive. The region combines low valuations, competitive currencies and favorable commodity prices.
Argentina was the first to change, with shares purchased before Javier Milei’s election. Chile followed. Its market had fallen to its lowest valuations in three decades under Gabriel Boric, whose failed attempt at constitutional reform preceded a shift to the right.
In Colombia, the company began investing about a year and a half ago, anticipating change after multiples compressed during Gustavo Petro’s government.
Brazil is on the radar. The market is inexpensive and discounts a high probability of a Lula victory, leaving room for a sharp move if voters deliver a different result.
Materials of the future
The second theme looks further ahead. The company calls it the “materials of the future,” and copper occupies a central place. Three trends converge on the same metal.
First, the energy transition requires far more copper and aluminum as power grids move away from oil and coal toward wind and solar energy.
Second, the war between the US and Iran will accelerate this transition as countries seek energy security and try to reduce their dependence on oil.
Third, the expansion of electric and autonomous vehicles adds another layer of demand. Artificial intelligence, through those same data centers, creates an additional and enormous source of demand. Supply responds slowly because developing new mines takes years.
Financial inclusion
The third theme is the quietest: financial inclusion. The company has been investing in Eastern European banks selected not for their headlines, but for a structural gap.
In countries such as Poland and Hungary, credit penetration represents only about 30% of GDP, far below Western European levels. That implies years of double-digit loan growth as households and businesses close the gap.
The fund sought market leaders: dominant banks with high returns on equity that trade at low valuations. It holds positions in Greece, Hungary, Poland and Georgia. This is a bet on financial inclusion as an engine of growth, and on the slow process through which an economy learns to borrow.
Artificial intelligence
The fourth theme is artificial intelligence, approached from an unusual angle. While most attention is focused on US software companies, Eternal looks instead at Asia’s factories, based on the premise that AI cannot exist without physical components that almost no one else can manufacture.
South Korea produces around 50% of the world’s advanced memory. In Taiwan, close to 80% of the most advanced chips are manufactured.
As Amazon, Google and Meta pour capital into data centres, demand for memory and chips rises with it.
Eternal’s team identified the opportunity in mid-2025, when it made several AI investments. At the same time, it recognises that the theme is already well advanced and that some valuations have become expensive. Even the clearest trend has a price.
