05/10/2026
The new episode of The Next Five is out tomorrow.
Supply and demand: the foundational backbone of market economies. And in the AI era, both are being rewritten.
Behind this AI revolution sits a monumental physical buildout, and an energy demand to match. Globally, data centre power consumption is set to double by 2030 to almost 945 terawatt-hours, more power than the entire nation of Japan consumes.
In some regions the strain is already visible. Data centres accounted for more than a fifth of Ireland's national electricity consumption in 2022, and are predicted to reach nearly a third this year. Stateside, in 2023, when far less powerful models existed, roughly a quarter of electricity use in the US state of Virginia was absorbed by data centres. And yet McKinsey still estimates $7tn of global data centre infrastructure investment by 2030.
Then come the hyperscalers. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle are expected to spend around $670bn on AI-related capital expenditure this year alone, and nearly $800bn next year. The nine largest AI companies have collectively forecast $4.1tn in capital expenditure through to 2030, a trillion dollars more than the total 2025 capex of all US non-financial companies combined.
So, as these systems are rewritten, are we witnessing the greatest industrial re-tooling in human history, or is it all too much to handle?
Joining the host, Tom Parker, is Matthew Wright, Chief Strategy Officer at Trade Nation, alongside Walter Pasquarelli, Researcher at Cambridge University and advisor to the OECD, and Bernard Marr, Author and Futurist.
Follow The Next Five now, so you don't miss it: https://thenextfive.ft.com/
This episode was recorded on 16th September 2026.
Partner Content by Trade Nation
