PwC Global Data Centre Outlook - where the US$31.6tn AI buildout leaves compute prices

Renting a GPU hour looks like a market price. It behaves more like a construction schedule: PwC projects US$31.6 trillion of capex through 2050, with annual data centre spend climbing from roughly US$800bn in 2026 to US$1.8tn in 2050.

- Chip refresh cycles carry the money, not buildings - ICT equipment moves from 70% of spend today to 93% by 2050, so the bill never tapers the way roads or rail do
- The US takes 48% of it, US$15.1tn, with Asia Pacific at US$8.2tn led by China and India
- Power is the gating factor, ahead of connectivity, policy and even GPU access - affordable low-carbon electricity at scale is what most markets cannot deliver

Read it as a planning input rather than a headline: PwC's own downside case, where export controls disrupt chip supply, lands at US$25.5tn and halves annual investment around 2030 before it recovers. That window is where compute pricing actually reaches a startup.

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2026/global-investment-in-ai-infrastructure.html

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