AI has pumped hyperscale capex, capacity – but how long can it last?

Hyperscale datacenter operators nearly tripled their spending on infrastructure over the past three years in response to the AI craze, while the amount of operational capacity added each quarter has increased by 170 percent, with little sign so far of any slowdown.

Synergy Research has released its latest data tracking the growth of the hyperscale companies, which includes the big cloud providers Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, plus others such as Meta, Alibaba, Tencent, and Oracle.

While the market has long enjoyed strong growth, Synergy's figures and charts show how it went into overdrive following the launch of ChatGPT towards the end of 2022. After this, it seemed like world+dog wanted to train their own generative AI models, and demand shot up for suitable IT infrastructure and the datacenters to house it in.

As a result, quarterly capex reported by the hyperscale operators has inflated, growing by almost 180 ...