Analysis:AI's race to transform the world before the money runs out

FILE PHOTO: "AI Artificial Intelligence" words, a keyboard and a robotics hand in this illustration taken, September 23, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results.

LONDON, Oct 3 : Never has so much cash flowed into a new technology as is pouring into AI, eclipsing the sums splurged on railways or the internet when those technological revolutions sucked in capital.

Cumulative spending globally on data centers alone could top $30 trillion by 2050, according to a projection by PwC, almost matching the value of outstanding US Treasuries. It "dwarfs" what was spent in the railroad or dotcom booms, even after adjusting for inflation, PwC said.

Meanwhile, Anthropic, just one of the major firms in the AI race, plans to spend $518 billion in coming years, according to the IPO prospectus seen by Reuters, which is more than 100 times its 2025 revenue. Its backers say AI technology will be more transformational than the advent of steam engines and the industrialization they powered.

Yet lurking behind the dizzying projections and huge outlays by AI companies, alongside sky-high valuations, lie assumptions about vast broad-based productivity gains and future profits with little evidence so far - or historical precedent - to be sure they can deliver, economists say.

Copyright for this text belongs to CNA.