For all the constant buzz around AI, broad-based announcements about how AI has boosted profits are noticeably missing. The reason for this loud silence: it hasn’t happened—yet.

AI is not an immaterial vapor hovering above the economy. The models that will power future change run on a foundation of physical inputs: cables, turbines, chips, and copper. These are bought and sold all over the world. This is why the one area AI is having a measurable effect on trade.

According to recent research from the McKinsey Global Institute, shipments of the chips, servers, and networking equipment needed to build data centers increased by almost 40% in 2025, accounting for a third of global trade growth. In the United States, which accounted for approximately half of new data-center capacity in 2025, AI-related trade rose by two-thirds, or an estimated $220 billion.

The reason AI’s impact on trade is so wide-reaching is that while a data center might be located in Virginia and use American-designed semiconductors and large language models, it is ultimately a citizen of the world, home to chips fabricated in Taiwan and extreme-ultraviolet lithography machines made in the Netherlands. These are paired with Korean memory chips, which may be packaged or tested in Southeast Asia. Mexican turbines and Chilean copper........

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