State of the Themes

If you’re new to CitriniResearch, our State of the Themes is our chance to catch up on all the developments occurring across our coverage. While we try to actively trade around our themes, our State of the Themes articles outline longer term views, highlight new stocks and give readers a solid grasp on what’s moving and where. I can confidently say that 2025 has been one of the most thematically driven years in recent memory. Unlike 2024, which was mostly dominated by one theme (AI), this year has seen broad dispersion across trends. Sometimes a singular environment is easier – if there’s one dominant theme it’s much less likely you’ll miss out.

We’ve caught our fair share so far this year – from drones/electronic warfare, to the EU defense trade, AI’s gyrations, and its embodied counterpart Robotics and the Trump trade’s various forms (from DOGE concerns to tariffs to the One Big Beautiful Bill). At the same time, these kinds of rapid-fire thematic markets make a “misfire” all the more likely. When trends shift around rapidly, shiny and fast moving things can present investors long-term promise when there’s none to be had. We recall not-so-fondly the thematic trades in 5G, IoT and Work-From-Home that burned investors despite becoming real parts of everyday life.

Some recent “themes”, like the Digital Asset Treasury trade or Quantum Computing, give us a bit of pause as to where we are in the cycle. Our efforts are meant to focus on the most durable, investable and market-moving of these trends, but it’s important once in a while to step back and see what’s moving. So, let’s check in on the CitriniResearch thematic universe: In this quarter’s “State of the Themes” we will cover our continued allocation decisions in AI, Robotics, Healthcare, Defense and Government Policy. Additionally, we bring back a thematic basket we opted to exit in favor of concentration into more secular trends – our “Small Themes” basket.