Big Tech will spend more than $700 billion on AI infrastructure this year. Yet only about a third of the US data center capacity due in 2026 is actually being built, according to Bloomberg.
The numbers are extraordinary by any standard. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta are on course to spend roughly $730 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, about three-quarters more than in 2025, and most of it goes into data centers, chips and power. Europe is answering with a mix of private capital and public ambition. The EU opened a call in July for up to seven AI gigafactories, after an earlier round in which bidders pointed to more than €230 billion of potential investment across 60 sites in 16 member states. That is a genuine opportunity. Whoever builds this capacity will host the next generation of software, medicine and industrial automation. But it is also a risk, because capital is now moving faster than the physical world can absorb it.
