Epoch AI Estimates AI Data-Center Buildout Hit ~0.8% of U.S. GDP in Q1 2026
Epoch AI (via Latent Space)via @EpochAIResearch·medium signal
Epoch AI estimated that AI-related data center construction, compute hardware, and networking reached roughly 0.8% of U.S. GDP in Q1 2026, pushing total computing infrastructure to about 1.5% of GDP. The figure quantifies how AI capex has become a macroeconomic, not just sector-level, story. It contextualizes the cost-control scramble (Cloudflare spend limits, token attribution) as a rational response to genuinely large absolute spend.