Morgan Stanley maps the AI infrastructure stack and who gets paid at each layer
SumitGup · x · 2026-07-28
A Morgan Stanley heatmap breaks the AI infrastructure stack into layers and shows who captures value at each step.
What the chart covers
- Owners/operators at the top: hyperscalers such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, plus REITs, private equity, enterprises, and neoclouds like CoreWeave and Nebius.
- Underlying buildout: semiconductors, processors, server components, servers, networking, internal power/cooling, and power supply.
- Adjacent infrastructure: foundry, memory/storage, cabling, grid infrastructure, power generation, and even conversion segments like Bitcoin/HPC.
The key takeaway is that the money flow is not just in model software; a huge share of the AI boom is captured by the companies funding, building, powering, and cooling the data centers.
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