AI’s insatiable power appetite is both expensive and unsustainable. That’s the main takeaway from a data-analytics-id=”inline-link” href=”https://www.bain.com/insights/how-can-we-meet-ais-insatiable-demand-for-compute-power-technology-report-2025/” target=”_blank” data-url=”https://www.bain.com/insights/how-can-we-meet-ais-insatiable-demand-for-compute-power-technology-report-2025/” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” data-hl-processed=”none”>new report by Bain & Company, which puts a staggering number on what it will cost to keep feeding AI’s compute appetite — more than $500 billion per year in global data-center investment by 2030, with $2 trillion in annual revenue required to make that capex viable. Even under generous assumptions, Bain estimates the AI industry will come up $800 billion short.
It’s a sobering reality check for…
