Larry Fink, the chairman and CEO of BlackRock (BLK), issued a stark warning on Wednesday that any moratorium on U.S. data center construction would produce a recession, arguing that the AI capital expenditure cycle has become so deeply embedded in the American economy that halting it would cause a severe contraction. The warning landed on the same day BlackRock reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and disclosed that its assets under management had ballooned to a record $15.49 trillion — essentially half the size of the entire U.S. economy.
Wall Street estimates place total AI capital expenditures above $1 trillion annually by 2027, with cumulative spending potentially exceeding $5 trillion by 2030 and a Brookings study projecting $10.3 trillion through 2032.
