Luxury brands chase wealthy Americans as AI boom lifts spending
AI-fueled fortunes pushed luxury brands toward the U.S., where North America took 27% of global store openings in 2025 and New York led.
European luxury houses are increasingly betting on wealthy Americans who have ridden the AI and tech boom, a shift that is showing up not just in stock portfolios but in store counts, runway calendars and the geography of high-end retail. As consumer confidence weakens in much of the world, the U.S. luxury shopper has stayed comparatively resilient, pulling brands toward Manhattan, affluent enclaves and other pockets of concentrated wealth.
That reallocation is already visible in the numbers. Savills said North America accounted for 27% of global luxury store openings in 2025, the first time it ranked first in a decade of tracking, with New York the top location worldwide. JLL said luxury retail openings in the U.S. totaled 146,888 square feet in the first quarter of 2025, and first-half luxury retail square footage rose 65.1% from a year earlier, underscoring how aggressively brands are leaning into the American market.
The pressure to find growth in the U.S. comes after two years of contraction for the luxury goods sector and a broader recovery that has remained uneven. Bain & Company said China’s personal luxury goods market shrank 3% to 5% in 2025 after a far steeper 17% to 19% decline in 2024, and described the rebound as fragile and uneven. Bain also said in November 2025 that the global luxury goods industry was likely to grow 3% to 5% in 2026 after stagnating in 2025, with continued momentum in the United States helping drive the rebound.
The biggest groups are adjusting their playbooks accordingly. LVMH said it generated 80.8 billion euros in revenue in 2025 and operated more than 6,280 stores worldwide, while saying local demand in Europe and the United States remained solid in the first half of 2025. Kering reported 2025 revenue of 14.675 billion euros, down 13% as reported, but said Bottega Veneta’s North America sales rose 18% on a comparable basis. Moncler posted 2025 revenue of 3.1321 billion euros, up 3% at constant exchange rates, and its New York Fifth Avenue flagship was slated to open in early 2026 as its largest store globally.
The industry’s messaging has followed the money. Gucci’s Cruise 2026 show was presented in Florence, and Dior’s Cruise 2026 collection was presented in Rome on May 27, 2025, but the wider strategy is clear: move product, fashion shows and marketing closer to American buyers whose wages, stock compensation and tech-linked assets have swelled with the AI rally. Deloitte’s 2026 luxury survey found 66.9% of executives expected stable or growing revenues and 70.7% expected to maintain or improve margins, a sign that luxury groups are bracing for a narrower but richer customer base to carry more of the load.
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