Hardware delays, rising electricity prices, and labor inequities show the hidden toll of AI’s surge
Source: Gemini
The global Artificial Intelligence (AI) race has entered a paradoxical phase where trillion-dollar valuations and euphoric investor sentiment sit side by side with power shortages, rising inequality, and existential warnings from leading scientists. While the AI revolution promises transformative productivity and automation, the scale and speed of its infrastructure buildout are straining the world’s hardware, energy, and ethical limits.
The financial bubble no one wants to call a bubble
McKinsey estimates that AI-related data centre construction will require an astonishing $6.7 trillion in capital expenditure by 2030. Yet, according to Bain & Company, AI companies would need $2 trillion in annual revenue by that year just to justify that spending. In comparison, total AI revenue in 2025 stood at roughly $50 billion, which is a fraction of what’s being invested.
To put that into perspective, the industry is now investing seven to eight times more than its current income. A ratio far exceeding the 4x multiple seen during the early-2000s fibre-optic bubble.
Market analysts compar
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