That figure would be up from the $700 billion the hyperscaler ecosystem is spending this year and the $300 billion it spent last year, Dimon said.
“That’s like a 1% increase to GDP each year and obviously it may add a little bit to inflation because you’re hiring people, you’re building factories, you’re buying equipment and copper wires, and building powerplants and all of that,” Dimon said. “But it’s an unbelievable technology, so down the road it could very well enhance deflationary factors out there. It looks like it’s going to continue.”
Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang said during a May earnings call that hyperscaler capital expenditure on AI alone is forecast to exceed $1 trillion in 2027 and that AI infrastructure spending could reach $3 trillion to $4 trillion annually by the end of the decade.
“Compute is revenues. Compute is profit,” Huang said.
Bloomberg reported in July that Bloomberg Intelligence projected that the six largest U.S. hyperscalers are expected to devote nearly $820 billion to capital expenditures this year, a figure that is almost 80% higher than the record level spent last year.
During the Tuesday interview with CNBC, Dimon was asked about the return on investment around enterprise adoption of AI and said there are benefits beyond ROI.
“Companies, when they do stuff, they will be looking at the benefits they get,” Dimon said. “It’s not just ROI, sometimes it’s just table stakes, you can’t … If it really enhances their customer experience, you may not be able to calculate ROI, but you want a happy customer. But, yeah, I think there will be ROI because companies will be looking at how much they’re paying, what’s the benefit, how it works, is it enhancing their businesses.”
Asked about the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Dimon said he believes their talks will include security around AI as well as issues like trade and tariffs.
“I hope they’ll raise all those issues. This is important for the whole free world,” Dimon said.
