Bain: Global AI industry needs $6 trillion in yearly revenue by 2031 to support data center spending

Bain & Company says the global AI industry needs to generate $6 trillion in yearly revenue by 2031 to support the massive capital spending on data centers worldwide. Current consumer and enterprise AI services can bring in at most $1.8 trillion, leaving a $4.2 trillion gap.

That new revenue could come from early-stage markets like automated machines, robots, drug discovery, mental health and energy production. Lead author David Crawford says AI infrastructure is running far ahead of demand, and global GDP growth would need to rise by about 1% more each year to sustain these investments.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Oracle are spending trillions on data centers. Bain expects global data center investment to reach $5 trillion to $6.5 trillion by 2030, adding at least 150GW of capacity and putting more pressure on energy supplies worldwide.