AI Stack Revenue Grew 5x to $435B in Two Years, Yet Semiconductors Take 79% of Profit
le_james94 · x · 2026-09-26
Lecture 1 of Stanford's MS&E 435 (Apoorv Saxena):
- AI revenue across the stack grew 5x in two years, from roughly $90B to $435B, yet the profit distribution barely moved.
- Semiconductors captured 79% of gross profit in 2026; applications took just 7%, versus 70% in cloud software.
- Structural key: every AI request spends GPU time.
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