By the end of this year, the tech industry will have invested about $717bn over three years into large language model (LLM) AI and the infrastructure needed to support it. While estimates for next year vary, it is possible that industry will invest a comparable amount. This suggests that the industry is receiving more capital than has been invested in the rest of the tech industry since the modern era began in 1956, the year the justice department’s consent decree with AT&T gave birth to Silicon Valley.
In a technology investing career that now spans 43 years, I have never seen a phenomenon remotely like large language model AI. Big tech, journalists, politicians, CEOs and investors are all convinced that AI is an inevitable Next Big Thing that will change everything in our economy and society for the better.
