What if the US$3 trillion AI investment boom goes wrong?
Even if the technology achieves its potential, plenty of people will lose their shirts
IT ALREADY ranks among the biggest investment booms in modern history. This year America’s large tech firms will spend nearly US$400 billion on the infrastructure needed to run artificial intelligence (AI) models.
OpenAI and Anthropic, the world’s leading model-makers, are raising billions every few months; their combined valuation is approaching half a trillion dollars. Analysts reckon that by the end of 2028 the sums spent worldwide on data centres will exceed US$3 trillion.
The scale of these bets is so vast that it is worth asking what will happen at payback time. Even if the technology succeeds, plenty of people will lose their shirts. And if it doesn’t, the economic and financial pain will be swift and severe.
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