The Economist: AI model revenue is in the low hundreds of billions but data centers price in trillions
asusarla · x · 2026-11-13
An Economist long-read asks whether the AI boom can make enough money to sustain itself: model-maker run-rate revenue is in the low hundreds of billions, while the data center buildout prices in trillions within a few years. Ramp-sourced data hints revenue growth may be slowing despite capability advances. AI lacks SaaS's high switching costs and low marginal cost — models are easy to switch between and every new user costs money to serve, undermining the wide-moat returns story. The accompanying chart estimates annualized revenue near $125bn total (Anthropic $75bn, OpenAI $48bn) with month-over-month growth clearly decelerating.
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