Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says By Nick Lichtenberg Business Editor October 7, 2025 at 1:15 PM EDT FORTUNE Furman added it’s probably not the case the U.S. economy would have recorded almost no expansion at all absent this buildout, reasoning that “absent the AI boom we would probably have lower interest rates [and] electricity prices, thus some additional growth in other sectors. In very rough terms that could maybe make up about half of what we got from the AI boom.” But still, it’s big. Tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Nvidia have poured tens of billions of dollars into building and upgrading data centers, responding to explosive demand for artificial intelligence and large language models that require massive computing resources. Lisa Shallet, chief investment officer for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, flagged on Sept. 29 that spending was truly massive among the so-called “hyperscalers” who are striving for huge computing, storage and networking capacity. (emphasis added)
It’s not just bad, it’s not just harmful, but it’s also ruining the potential good. AI bullshit is in fact stymying the “innovation” these tech people and industrialists always assert they’re so concerned about.