Supply Chain Financing
Supply Chain Financing - Durable Global Trade in the Age of AI
Download Supply Chain Financing hereKey Takeaways
1. For four years running, the economy has shaken off prevailing challenges as evidenced by growth in trade flows and our surveys of corporates; in each case, global growth has continued at a solid pace.
2. As the administration’s policies have been digested, shipping levels have returned to a more normal range and provide evidence of supply chains’ inherent resilience and adaptability.
3. From 2019-2024, global trade significantly reorganized due to geopolitics, supply chain diversification, and new production centers, preceding 2025 tariffs.
4. In some sectors, earnings were being sustained by price increases, but the ability to further implement price hikes has largely diminished.
5. AI leaders previously relied on cash or traditional debt financing to fund data centers; the transition to data centers optimized for AI workloads has fundamentally altered both the scale of investment required, and the cost structure.
6. Tokenization of trade finance instruments may improve access to liquidity; Citi, in partnership with PwC and Solana, is exploring ways a bill of exchange could be transformed into digital asset in a tokenized format.
7. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) remain underserved in trade finance; AI can shift this cost curve by automating the analysis of SME information, supporting more dynamic underwriting.
The 2026 edition of Citi’s Supply Chain Financing report examines the shifting dynamics of global trade and assesses the real outcomes of tariff policy and the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence. Against a backdrop of volatility, global trade endures.
Global trade and geopolitics are closely intertwined with one another and 2025 reaffirmed that bond remains intact. Export growth from North and East Asia has shifted towards more emerging economies in efforts to diversify customers while the United States appears to have increased its imports from other regions faster than it has from North and East Asia. Technology – in particular artificial intelligence and blockchain – has also had a profound impact on trade and supply chains.
Survey data shows a sharp increase in the number of treasurers using AI to manage a wide array of treasury functions and new applications of technology only continue to emerge. Overall, this year’s Supply Chain Financing report encapsulates the state of global trade and how it may continue to evolve in 2026.