I’ve been thinking about a question lately: who benefits from inflation? It seems counterintuitive, but if you look closely at the 2026 market, you’ll find the answer is actually very clear.

First, a real-world example. Suppose you saved 1,000,000 at the beginning of 2024. Back then, a bowl of beef noodles cost 200, so in theory you could eat 5,000 bowls. Now, although your savings have grown to more than 1.03 million thanks to interest, that bowl of noodles has already risen to around 212. If you do the math, you can now only eat 4,859 bowls. In other words, inflation has silently eaten away 141 bowls’ worth of purchasing power. That’s why simply saving money isn’t enough—you need assets that can run ahead of the rate at which prices rise.

So who are the real winners in an inflationary environment? In fact, it’s the companies with pricing power. They can pass cost pressures directly on to consumers, and they can even profit from the wave of price increases. These inflation beneficiaries can be roughly divided into several categories.

The first category is essential consumer goods and retail leaders. Companies like Walmart and Costco can actually gain market share when people’s wallets shrink. Costco’s membership model is especially interesting: it locks in consumers while using massive purchasing volume to lower costs. Taiwan’s Uni-President also follows a similar logic—it controls pricing power in distribution channels. Fast-moving consumer goods brands like Procter & Gamble and Mondelez have strong customer loyalty, giving them plenty of room to raise prices.

The second category is financial stocks. Even though everyone worries that interest rates might fall, in 2026 rates still appear set to remain at relatively high levels. Banks’ net interest margins can continue to expand. Large commercial banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Santander, as well as Yuanta Financial in Taiwan, can benefit from this. Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance group is even more intriguing—its huge insurance float becomes an asset in the inflation era.

The third category worth paying attention to is hard assets and raw-material supply chains. The essence of inflation is currency devaluation, so physical resources tend to have real value. The AI data center boom has caused demand for electricity to soar, low-earth-orbit satellite construction is entering a peak period, and these factors all drive demand for green energy metals such as copper and lithium. ExxonMobil can profit directly from higher oil prices. As the world’s largest copper miner, Freeport. And Albemarle’s lithium business—these companies are straightforward answers to the question of who benefits from inflation. Formosa Petrochemical’s strong pricing power in the energy infrastructure space is also a factor.

The fourth category is companies with absolute moats. TSMC almost monopolizes advanced manufacturing processes, and AI chipmakers rely on it heavily—its bargaining power is unbeatable. Microsoft’s B2B software services have high customer stickiness, and switching costs are too high, leaving consumers no choice when prices rise. Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton have customers who are basically not sensitive to prices, so raising prices can actually strengthen the sense of rarity in the brand. ASML’s EUV machines are an absolute necessity for modern technology, giving them full control over pricing.

How do you operate in practice? Instead of buying all at once, it’s better to build positions in stages to deal with short-term fluctuations around inflation data releases. In an inflationary environment, cash flow becomes especially reliable, so you should prioritize companies with stable dividend payouts and dividend growth rates higher than the inflation rate. If you want to capture opportunities during short-term volatility, you can also consider using flexible instruments such as contracts for difference (CFDs) for two-way trading, especially when gold prices or oil prices experience sharp swings.

In the end, inflation isn’t what’s scary. What’s scary is when your asset allocation falls behind the rise in prices. In the second half of 2026, the most important thing is not to let cash be eroded by inflation, but instead to allocate toward quality assets that can truly pass through costs and have growth potential. By making good use of diversified allocation strategies, you can not only withstand inflation and protect your assets, but also create opportunities to grow your wealth during this wave of price increases.