Opinion | In An AI-Anchored World Order, Tech Capital Alone Can't Price Our Future

Updated: Jul 27, 2026 18:07 pm IST Published On Jul 27, 2026 18:07 pm IST Last Updated On Jul 27, 2026 18:07 pm IST

Published On Jul 27, 2026 18:07 pm IST

Last Updated On Jul 27, 2026 18:07 pm IST

Last year, multinational company Nvidia's market value became $5 trillion, which is bigger than the annual production size of most major global economies at this point. At about the same time, the world's biggest tech companies announced investment plans that may total more than a trillion dollars over the next few years, much of which will be focused on building infrastructure for AI, data centres, and advanced computing systems. AI-led investments are guiding a new trend in the world stock market trends and across major economies - while sucking out capital from emerging market economies and other sectors.

This is proof of a new revolution in technology-led capital investment that has caused the emergence of what is an AI-anchored world order. There are issues with this trend, of course. Commitment to AI-led investment is growing, but there is limited evidence of widespread productivity gains in/across these firms - which we explained earlier in terms of the formation of a tech-fueled mania or bubble. Goldman Sachs estimates that cumulative capital expenditure by the world's largest hyperscalers could exceed $1.1 trillion over the coming years, while Morgan Stanley projects nearly $2.9 trillion in global data-centre spending through 2028. Broader AI-related investment is expected to surpass $1.6 trillion over the same period, extending far beyond software into semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, electricity networks, and specialised computing systems.

While all major companies are blindly betting on big investments in AI, (stock) markets have been signaling other companies to follow trend and governments - some of which hardly understand AI at all, are rethinking their industrial policies and growth-strategies around it. This is troubling-and a trend too well seen in economic history before where the history of economic change through investment pledges made are rarely as apparent as the financial optimism often seen around it.

There is of course a few countries benefiting from this........

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