Global AI spending set to hit $1.5 trillion in 2025, driving IT investment surge

Gartner, the US-based research and advisory firm, has forecast that global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) will reach nearly $1.5 trillion (approximately THB 51 trillion) in 2025. The surge is primarily driven by growing demand for AI and the expansion of IT infrastructure to support its deployment.

John-David Lovelock, Vice President and Analyst at Gartner, stated that this forecast reflects ongoing investment in AI infrastructure, as major cloud service providers (Hyperscalers) continue to invest in data centres equipped with hardware and GPUs optimised for AI to expand their services.

He added that the AI investment landscape is not limited to US tech giants. Chinese players and emerging AI cloud providers are also entering the market. Venture capital investment in AI service providers is another major driver supporting the global growth in AI spending.

Gartner predicts that by 2026, global AI spending will exceed $2 trillion (around THB 68 trillion), primarily driven by the integration of AI into consumer products such as smartphones, PCs, and infrastructure systems.

AI investment accelerates across all market segments

In 2024, global AI spending totalled $987.9 billion (approximately THB 33.6 trillion), broken down as follows: AI services at $259.5 billion (THB 8.82 trillion), AI application software $83.7 billion (THB 2.84 trillion), AI infrastructure software $56.9 billion (THB 1.93 trillion), and Generative AI (Gen AI) models at $5.7 billion (THB 193.8 billion).

In 2025, AI spending is expected to reach $1.5 trillion (THB 51 trillion), with AI services rising to $282.6 billion (THB 9.61 trillion), AI application software doubling to $172.0 billion (THB 5.84 trillion), AI infrastructure software growing to $126.2 billion (THB 4.29 trillion), and Gen AI models expanding to $14.2 billion (THB 482.8 billion).

By 2026, the AI market is projected to grow further, surpassing $2 trillion (THB 68 trillion) in total value. AI services are expected to reach $324.7 billion (THB 11.04 trillion), AI application software $269.7 billion (THB 9.17 trillion), AI infrastructure software $229.8 billion (THB 7.81 trillion), and Gen AI models accelerating to $25.8 billion (THB 877.2 billion).

Infrastructure and hardware drive market growth

Servers customised for AI, including GPUs and other AI accelerators, are projected to grow significantly from $140.1 billion (around THB 4.76 trillion) in 2024 to $267.5 billion (THB 9.09 trillion) in 2025, reaching $329.5 billion (THB 11.21 trillion) in 2026. AI-focused IaaS services are expected to expand from $7.4 billion (THB 251.6 billion) in 2024 to $18.3 billion (THB 622.2 billion) in 2025 and $37.5 billion (THB 1.27 trillion) in 2026.

Semiconductors and consumer devices

Semiconductors for AI processing will increase from $138.8 billion (THB 4.72 trillion) in 2024 to $209.2 billion (THB 7.12 trillion) in 2025, reaching $267.9 billion (THB 9.11 trillion) in 2026. AI PCs (both ARM and x86 architectures) are expected to grow from $51.0 billion (THB 1.73 trillion) in 2024 to $90.4 billion (THB 3.07 trillion) in 2025, and $144.4 billion (THB 4.91 trillion) in 2026.

Generative AI smartphones are projected to become a major market, rising from $244.7 billion (THB 8.32 trillion) in 2024 to $298.2 billion (THB 10.14 trillion) in 2025, and reaching $393.3 billion (THB 13.37 trillion) in 2026.