As AI redefines industries, the flow of capital into the physical backbone of this technology—vast data centers—has upended old assumptions about what drives America’s economy. Consumer spending, though still immense in absolute terms, is not keeping up with the extraordinary scale and speed of investment by tech giants determined to lead in the AI era. The trajectory suggests that the U.S. economy in 2025 is being shaped not so much by the purchasing power of its people, but by the relentless arms race for AI compute capacity—an unprecedented, tech-led growth engine.
[This headline was updated to clarify that data-center spending has surpassed consumer spending as a share of GDP growth.]
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
