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AI needs $6T in annual revenue to justify data centre boom

222 points · 335 comments · Betelbuddy

  1. bunderbunder · · focus · HN ↗
    They talk a bit about where the AI companies are supposed to get their revenue from. I’d like to see these analyses go a step further and talk about how those AI customers are supposed to come up with that money as well.

    For example, the article suggests $1T from enterprise productivity tooling. A quick Google suggests the global enterprise productivity tooling market is only worth about $0.1T right now.

    Do we really expect all the world’s corporations to suddenly up their annual spend by 1,000% on average? Why?

    1. kingstnap · · focus · HN ↗
      > enterprise productivity tooling market

      AI is not a replacement for powerpoint and excel. You can't substitute those.

      White collar worker salaries is ~$30T+ global.

      1. base698 · · focus · HN ↗
        What does this mean? I've been using AI as a replacement for both of those for longer than a year. If I need a PowerPoint file I have it generated off my tooling. Instead of fiddling to align text you say update slide 6 to look like this, strike this sentence. And you can add even more dynamic content. Like live application dashboards connected to real sources.
        1. owebmaster · · focus · HN ↗
          Most people spent 15 minutes making bad PPTs in the past now they spend 5 minutes asking ChatGPT to create one. The presentation/meeting will take the same 2 hours where most ppl will get bored.

          This "productivity" gain changes nothing. Software already optimized most of it in the past 20 years, the gains now are marginal, at best incremental.

          1. eurhe · · focus · HN ↗
            I’d argue productivity is declining in this context.

            The PowerPoint object is meant to be a package of one’s insights. If those insights are of zero value (the less time you spend the less value - correlation) - that time expended is a net negative for he firm’s productivity.

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