Spending on AI data centers is so massive that it’s taken a bigger chunk of GDP growth than shopping—and it could crash the American economy
The great American consumer may finally meet his match, a huge rectangular box hosting very few people inside, but rather a huge nest of servers, storage systems and network equipment. Consumer spending in the US services economy is very large so that the mind can baffle, which represents two -thirds of GDP. To reformulate the long -term coffee chain Dunkin, America works to spend.
But this great American consumer has slow seasons, and it seems that the summer of 2025 is one of them. There are many interconnected factors, the growth of modern functions that now show much smaller than previously believed and the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce. But these important rectangular funds, huge data centers that are running out throughout the country, appear as a giant magnet for the dollar in a way that competes with consumer spending.
Giant technology companies have spent a lot on databases in 2025 so that their spending now contributes to American economic growth more than consumer spending, which is a long economic engine in the country. If you take a reasonable assumption that spending on data centers is equivalent to the capitalist expenses of Amnesty International, which was defined as the capital scattered in information processing equipment and its programs, the pattern is clear: a lot of money flows into one focused area, and as a result of that.
All this spending should have an effect on the economy. Analysts from Renaissance Macro’s research indicate that until now in 2025, the value of the dollar has contributed to the growth of GDP through the expenses of the AI Data Center to overcome the total impact of all American consumer spending – the first time that this has ever happened.
To date, AI Capex, which we define as information processing equipment in addition to the GDP program added more than consumer spending. pic.twitter.com/d70fx2LXAW– Renmac: Renaissance Macro Research (@renmaclc) July 30, 2025
Or as Rusty Foster, the author of the media code is widely Today in tabsHe puts it: “Our economy may be three Amnesty International Data Data Centers in a trench coat.” This remembers the classic comedy device for many children who wear a long jacket, pretending to be adults, as it was photographed in an unimaginable way in Netflix’s Bojack HorsemanWhen Vincent, the adult, successfully preserved the illusion of several dates with Princess Caroline. But then the bubble emerged, or the trench coat came out.
Why is this happening now?
Many forces lead this unprecedented investment wave. The prosperity in the artificial intelligence and the advanced large language models – technology that requires huge amounts of computing resources – have forced forced technology giants to increase its physical infrastructure quickly. Data from MCKINSEY indicates that between 2025 and 2030, companies around the world will need to invest $ 6.7 trillion in a new data center capacity to keep pace with the demand for artificial intelligence.
At least 10 times the AI Data Data Center has grown with 2022, with Business blogger Paul Kerusky estimates that he is close to 2 % of GDP in the United States alone. “Honey, AI Capex Eat the Economy,” writes, on the pretext that AI Capex is so large that it “affects economic statistics, enhancing the economy, and starting to deal with the railway boom.”
Torsten Slok from Apollo Global Management, without going into the CAPEX question at the data center, collected research showing that the masculinity of the artificial intelligence had exceeded the market value of technology mutation in the late 1990s, which became known as the “Dotcom bubble” after the speculative obsession exploded.
Kedrosky is a similar point, as it contradicts the CAPEX mutations of financial history, especially the 2020 communications boom related to 5G/fiber/fiber technology and railway boom in the nineteenth century where the United States adopted a revolution in transportation. “Capital expenses on artificial intelligence centers are likely to be about 20 % of peak spending on railways, as a percentage of gross domestic product, and still rises quickly.” “We have already passed the peak of contracts to spend on communications during the Dotcom bubble.” Noah Smith, an economy who reads widely, asks the clear question: “Will the economy data centers be disrupted?”
Impact on the wider economy
This increase in technological investment was deep consequences. Without the construction of the AI data center, the gross domestic product may have actually contracted in the face of the uninterrupted macroeconomic conditions. Therefore, spending on the data center may have led to a recession.
Money that is in the infrastructure of Amnesty International is transferred from other sectors, including investment capital, traditional manufacturing, and even startups facing the consumer. Unlike the historical infrastructure mutation such as railways or communications, artificial intelligence centers are short-term, decreasing quickly, and require continuous promotions of devices-this pattern of investment may remain volatile and troubled capital for years to come.
Since AI redefine the industries, the capital flow to the material spine of this technology – data centers, has raised old assumptions about what drives the American economy. Consumer spending, although it is still absolutely enormous, does not keep pace with the unusual size and the speed of investment by technology giants determined to drive in the era of artificial intelligence. The path indicates that the American economy in 2025 is not much formed through the purchasing power of its people, but through the uncompromising arms race for the ability to calculate artificial intelligence-an unprecedented growth engine driven by technology.
[This headline was updated to clarify that data-center spending has surpassed consumer spending as a share of GDP growth.]
For this story, luck The artificial intelligence is used to help with a preliminary draft. Check an editor of the accuracy of the information before publishing.
2025-08-06 15:01:00
