Using January 2023 as 100, by May 2026, the US private data center construction spending index had risen to 380, nearly four times the starting point; during the same period, the semiconductor and electronic components industrial output index had only risen to 145. This gap suggests that AI is currently more like an infrastructure investment boom: funds are initially flowing into buildings, transformers, gas turbines, power grids, land, and electricity, and related production capacity is unlikely to expand simultaneously in the short term. Local cost pressures will appear before productivity dividends.
