AI Drives Record Growth in Information Technology

Good morning. Worldwide spending on information technology is expected to soar a record 15% next year as demand for AI keeps accelerating.

Gartner says IT spending will reach $7.3 trillion in 2027, up from a forecast $6.39 trillion this year. The gains are concentrated in data center systems, expected to grow 55%. The AI industry can’t build enough of the facilities in which computer systems reside. Infrastructure as a service, the computing capacity companies rent from cloud providers, is set to grow 26% to $367 billion.

Investors are struggling with how to value AI growth, but the growth itself remains strong.

“We have the demand for AI-optimized servers going crazy. We have the supply not being able to keep up. We have AI servers doubling in price, and nobody’s slowing down on orders,” John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, told the WSJ Leadership Institute.