IN NUMBERS
Spending on AI is expected to skyrocket to $2.5 trillion in 2026, eclipsing even the largest science and infrastructure projects.
World leaders and tech executives gather in New Delhi for India-AI Impact Summit 2026, with a focus on the role of artificial intelligence in governance, employment disruption and global collaboration.
But behind these discussions lies the financial reality. Over the past decade, AI has attracted one of the largest waves of private investment in modern history, totaling billions of dollars.
According to Gartner, an American business and technology analysis company, global spending on AI is expected to total $2.5 trillion in 2026, an increase of 44% from 2025.
To understand the scale of these investments, Al Jazeera visualizes the staggering amounts by comparing them to some of the largest projects ever created by humanity. We also highlight the countries spending the most on AI and provide insight into spending on data centers, models, services and security.
What does $1 billion look like?
To help understand a trillion dollars, it’s helpful to first visualize what millions and billions of dollars look like using a stack of US dollar bills.
If you break these amounts down into $100 bills, here’s how they add up:
- $1,000 would form a pile approximately 1 cm (0.393 inch) high.
- $10,000 would form a pile approximately 10 cm (3.93 inches) high.
- 1 million dollars would fit in a briefcase.
- 10 million dollars would fit in a very large suitcase.
- 100 million dollars would fit on an industrial pallet stacked waist high.
- 1 billion dollars would create a building approximately 5.2 meters (17 feet) high, with a width and length of approximately 2 meters (6.6 feet) each.
Another way to look at it is that if you spent $1 every second, you would:
- 11.5 days to spend $1 million
- 31 years to spend $1 billion
- 31,000 years to spend $1 trillion
In more concrete terms, $1 billion is roughly equivalent to:
- The estimated cost of Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, one of the largest archaeological museums in the world
- The cost of building two to three modern football stadiums, depending on their size and design
- Purchase of 10 luxury private jets (at $100 million each)
- Buy 6.3 tonnes of gold (at $5,000 per ounce)
- Buy 1 million high-end iPhones at retail price
$1.6 trillion already spent on AI
Over the past decade, AI investments have increased 13-fold.
According to the AI 2025 index Report According to Stanford University, between 2013 and 2024, total global business investment in AI reached $1.6 trillion. These substantial expenditures dwarf even the largest science and infrastructure projects of the 20th and 21st centuries.
To put the scale of investment in AI into perspective, compare it to some of the most ambitious and expensive projects in modern history. All figures are adjusted to 2024 US dollars:
- The Manhattan Project (1942-46): 36 billion dollars
- The International Space Station (1984-2011): 150 billion dollars
- The Apollo program (1960-73): 250 billion dollars
- The American Interstate Highway System (1956-92): 620 billion dollars
In just over a decade, investments in AI have exceeded the cost of developing the first atomic bomb, landing humans on the Moon and the decades-long effort to build the 46,876-mile (75,440 km) U.S. interstate highway system.
Unlike these historic projects, AI funding was not driven by a single government or war emergency. It has flowed through private markets, venture capital, corporate research and development, and global investors, making it one of the largest privately funded technology waves in history.
Global corporate investments in AI cover a wide range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, minority stakes, private investments and public offerings. These monumental expenditures highlight the considerable financial commitment to advancing AI.
Which countries spend the most on AI?
The AI investment boom is concentrated in just a few countries, where private capital has fueled thousands of startups and shaped global innovation hubs.
The United States dominates AI spending, accounting for approximately 62% of total private AI funding since 2013. Between 2013 and 2024, U.S. companies spent $471 billion on AI. Chinese companies come in second with $119 billion, followed by the United Kingdom with $28 billion.
These figures exclude government spending, such as the US CHIPS Act or European national AI subsidies.
Global private investment in AI by country, 2013-24:
- United States: $471 billion to support 6,956 newly funded AI companies
- China: $119 billion, 1,605 startups
- United Kingdom: $28 billion, 885 startups
- Canada: $15 billion, 481 startups
- Israel: $15 billion, 492 startups
- Germany: $13 billion, 394 startups
- India: $11 billion, 434 startups
- France: 11 billion dollars, 468 startups
- South Korea: $9 billion, 270 startups
- Singapore: $7 billion, 239 startups
- Others: $58 billion
AI spending will total $2.5 trillion in 2026
AI spending is expected to skyrocket to $2.5 trillion in 2026, driven by massive construction of data centers and services globally, according to Gartner.
The majority of spending should be devoted to:
- AI infrastructure: $1.37 trillion
- AI Services: $589 billion
- AI software: $452 billion
- AI Cybersecurity: $51 Billion
- AI platforms for data science and machine learning: $31 billion
- AI models: $26 billion
- AI application development platforms: $8.4 billion
- AI data: $3 billion
By 2027, Gartner predicts that AI spending will exceed $3.3 trillion.
