On Our "VIrtual Route 99 (Weekly Edition): On AI Featuring @KalToons & Thoughts By Goldman Sachs

Global AI Investment Is Forecast to Exceed $1 Trillion in 2026 The most common estimate for investment in artificial intelligence (AI) is the projection for capital expenditures by US hyperscalers. These tech companies are forecast to spend about $800 billion this year, according to the consensus of analyst estimates. But those estimates have several drawbacks, according to Goldman Sachs Research. They do not include investment in AI by private companies and by companies outside the US. Not all capex by hyperscalers is necessarily related to AI. And the major US tech companies operate globally, indicating some of their investment takes place outside the US. Goldman Sachs Research adjusted the widely used measures of US hyperscaler capex to produce a more comprehensive estimate. That projection points to $1.019 trillion of AI-related investment around the globe in 2026, including $581 billion in the US, writes Joseph Briggs, who co-leads the Global Economics team, in a report.

Goldman Sachs Research’s augmented estimates indicate that the commonly cited forecast for hyperscaler capex of $794 billion likely understates the total amount of global AI capex by around $200 billion. At the same time, that forecast likely overstates the amount of US investment by $200 billion. Read the full article for more on Goldman Sachs Research’s adjusted estimates for AI investment and its outlook for AI capex.

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