Brookings Institution projects $10.3T investment in AI infrastructure by 2032

The United States is about to pour more money into a single industry than it has into any infrastructure project in its history. A study published by the Brookings Institution projects that investment in AI-related infrastructure will hit $10.3 trillion between 2025 and 2032, averaging roughly 3.63% of US GDP annually over that stretch. To put that in perspective: the railroad boom, America’s most celebrated infrastructure buildout, peaked at around 2.24% of GDP. This AI bet would exceed that by a wide margin, and it clocks in at more than three times the relative spending on the interstate highway system and six times early electrification. The numbers behind the buildout The study, authored by Columbia University’s Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, breaks the $10.3 trillion across several categories: data center buildings, power systems, network infrastructure, and specialized chips and equipment. Hyperscaler capital expenditures jumped from $97 billion in 2020 to over $400 billion in 2025. The projection for 2026 alone sits at approximately $800 billion. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle are the primary drivers of that spending. Their combined capex through 2029 is estimated a...