The AI Building Boom Is Bound to Bust
The rapid data center build-out is driving sales and stock prices of companies from Caterpillar to Trane, but the digital gold rush won’t last forever.
The boom has room to run — for now.
Photographer: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
The AI hyperscalers that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers have dropped a windfall into the laps of the manufacturers, construction firms, building-materials makers and energy companies that make the build-out possible. Companies like Caterpillar Inc., GE Vernova, Siemens AG, Trane Technologies Plc and Amphenol Corp. are grabbing a big chunk of that capital spending to the delight of their investors.
For now, the boom has room to run. The introduction of artificial intelligence into the workplace and society will match the rollout of electricity and the internet, Morgan Stanley predicts, and it estimates that capital expenditure on AI infrastructure will reach $3 trillion through 2028. Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. are leading the charge, and startups including Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI are also piling in. The digital gold rush won’t last forever, though.