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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. Legend2440 · · focus · HN ↗
      Keep in mind wealth is not a fixed thing. If AI makes their businesses more productive, it would allow the creation of more wealth, giving them more money to pay for AI with.

      This of course hinges on the big if: does AI create wealth? I think yes, but maybe not $6 trillion of it in five years.

      1. bunderbunder · · focus · HN ↗
        But that's where the "Why?" comes in.

        At a time when corporate CEOs are largely saying that they can't see that AI has improved office productivity at all, why should we believe that a killer productivity application of genai that's amazing enough to justify an order of magnitude increase in enterprise spending on productivity tools is just around the corner?

        1. Legend2440 · · focus · HN ↗
          I don't really care what CEOs say - most of them are, for lack of a better word, idiots. They're all MBAs that wouldn't know a revolutionary technology from a hole in the ground.

          I see how useful AI tools are for myself and can't imagine it not changing the world over the next few decades.

          1. eurhe · · focus · HN ↗
            Are you putting your money where your mouth is and creating a startup then?

            If not then a) don’t diss the mba folks b) you don’t have as much conviction as you claim c) if you are then send a link so I can review?

            Cheers

            1. FridgeSeal · · focus · HN ↗
              Oopsy, MBA-holder detected!!

              Simply holding an overrated degree doesn’t instantly guarantee that their opinions and skills are “worthwhile” or “good”.

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