Investor chart: 3 waves of token consumption, 24x growth expected by 2030
AccBalanced · x · 2026-08-18
Investor Kyle Reidhead shares what he calls "the most important chart right now," breaking AI token consumption into three waves, each bigger than the last:
- Wave 1: Chat — growth limited from here, but the installed base remains;
- Wave 2: Agents — already shipping inside ChatGPT, with xAI launching Grok Bot as always-on AI coworkers for $120/month; enterprises deploying agents by the thousand. Cited data: agents now generate 64% of all tokens on OpenAI, nearly 2x chat itself;
- Wave 3: Physical AI — humanoids and robotaxis, which he argues will dwarf everything else.
He projects token usage to grow 24x by 2030, with enterprise agents alone burning 120 quadrillion tokens/month — the driver behind accelerating compute, memory, and power demand.
Note: the post promotes a Milk Road PRO subscription; figures are the author's views.
Related event: Investor chart: token demand to grow 24x by 2030 in three waves(2 posts)→
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