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At first glance, the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure looks unstoppable. Massive data center campuses are popping up across the globe. Cloud giants are racing to build bigger and faster facilities filled with cutting-edge GPUs and liquid cooling systems. But beneath the excitement lies a critical question: with trillions of dollars being poured into construction, where will the revenue come from to justify it all?

According to McKinsey, global capital spending on data centers could hit roughly $6.7 trillion by 2030 — with over $5 trillion tied directly to AI compute. (mckinsey.com) The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global electricity demand from data centers will more than double by the end of the decade, driven primarily by AI. (iea.org) Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum calls this surge a “data center gold rush” — one that’s colliding with energy constraints, regulatory pressure, and community pushback. (weforum.org)