New Data Suggests AI Investments Are Starting to Pay Off, Though Risks Persist
Techstrong.ai, Thursday, June 25th, 2026
Global AI revenue is starting to exceed infrastructure depreciation costs, but sustainability remains uncertain.
Exponential View research shows global AI revenue outside China reached 25 billion dollars in Q1 2026, surpassing an estimated 21 billion dollars in depreciation costs for a second straight quarter.
Tech giants collectively plan roughly 725 billion dollars in capital expenditures this year, mostly for AI infrastructure.
Depreciation consumes over two-thirds of industry revenue, leaving little room for electricity, operations, labor, and financing.
Older GPU hardware holds value, with NVIDIA H100 accelerators retaining about 80 percent of launch pricing.
Competitive pressure is rising as developers adopt open-weight models and alternatives like DeepSeek.