What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble
MIT Technology Review Narrated

What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 23, 202622 min
  • Documentary
  • Business & money

The AI hyperscalers will likely spend more than $1 trillion on data centers next year. Can they make enough money to sustain the infrastructure boom? This story was written by David Rotman and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com. Listen to more of the world's best journalism on the Noa app

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0:00

Welcome to MIT Technology Review Narrated. My name is Matt Honin. I'm our editor-in-chief. Every week, we'll bring you a fascinating, new, in-depth story from the leading edge of science and technology, covering topics like AI, biotech, climate, energy, robotics, and more. Here's this week's story. I hope you enjoy it.

0:30

David Rotman writes, What's at stake in AI's trillion-dollar gamble? When Jessica Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, wanted to assess AI's impact on the economy over the next few years, she faced a long list of business and technical uncertainties.

0:51

So she started with what she calls a remarkable fact that is not in question. A handful of so-called hyperscalers are investing huge sums of money to build AI data centers. Instead of trying to predict how useful and widely deployed AI models will be, she simply asked how fast the hyperscalers' earnings will need to grow to justify their spending

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