The number and size of data centers across the country are growing so immensely that they’re actually distorting our measurement of the entire U.S. economy, called the GDP or Gross Domestic Product.
On its earnings call yesterday, chipmaker Nvidia’s CEO estimated that this year alone, Artificial Intelligence infrastructure spending — building out data centers — will total $600 billion. He also said that by the end of the decade, spending will total between $3 trillion and $4 trillion.
He’s not the only one with predictions like this. The consulting firm McKinsey estimates data center buildouts will consume $7 trillion globally by the end of the decade.
All of that spending is helping prop up a whole host of companies: in construction, real estate, energy, and more.
It’s similar to the boom in the 1990s when we were building out telecommunications networks for the internet itself.
The reason we are talking about this today on Marketplace is because we got the latest GDP measurement, which appeared to show the U.S. economy growing at a robust pace. But when you take out spending on structures — and technology — the economy was really not that impressive.
That’s how big of a factor the AI boom is right now.
One building materials supplier I talked to said that it’s helping them even out their business after office building and residential construction declined. They’ve got 15 or more data center projects and the number keeps growing.
Another construction industry expert told me that new data center building projects — later this year and next — are going to be bigger business lines than building new office structures.
How long will all of this last? A Wall Street analyst told me maybe a decade or so. But at some point, the building boom will end as AI matures as an industry.
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