Harnessing AI for the Real Economy
The AI era is driving industrial transformation unlike any in modern history—faster, broader, and more capital-intensive, creating new infrastructure and industry simultaneously.
Most of the capital that will define the AI economy has not yet been deployed, most of the infrastructure has not yet been built, and most of the M&A that will shape the competitive landscape has not yet been executed. Hyperscalers alone are projected to invest more than $6 trillion in AI through 2030. Funding a buildout of this scale, an estimated $7 trillion+ between 2026 and 2031 across compute, power, and data centers, will require the full capital stack: equity, public and private debt, sovereign capital, and new joint-venture structures, some of which have yet to be invented.Even at that scale, US AI investment equals only about 1.2% of today’s annual GDP.2 And while it will rise further if current projections are realized, even the most optimistic scenarios suggest it will remain well below the railroad buildouts of the 1800s, which ran 3% to 4.5%. In Powering the AI Era (2025), we examined the infrastructure buildout and the financing innovations meeting that demand. This report addresses what comes next: the industrial reorganization unfolding across the real economy, the capital pools being assembled to fund it, and the gap between today’s digital-infrastructure financing and the demands of physical AI at scale. Businesses endure across such transformations by embracing new technologies and reinventing their strategic playbooks and capital structures in response. The companies emerging alongside them are building their technology and capital architecture simultaneously: AI labs growing at multibillion-dollar revenue numbers, physical AI and robotics firms drawing capital at software-startup velocity, defense challengers reshaping incumbents, space ventures reaching the public markets at unprecedented scale, and new companies building AI for engineering and manufacturing itself. Goldman Sachs has partnered with the companies behind every major industrial transformation for over 150 years. We continue to connect innovators with capital, industry expertise, and strategic guidance as they navigate the transformation happening today. And it feels like we’re just getting started.
Dan Dees Co-Head of Global Banking and Markets, Goldman Sachs
Read the full report here