// ai_infrastructure_costs

Source: Scott Galloway & Ed Elson

Big Tech's massive AI infrastructure investments—driven by competitive pressure to match capabilities and secure talent—have yet to generate commensurate revenue, creating a gap that pressures margins and forces companies toward aggressive monetization strategies like API pricing hikes and licensing deals. This explains the current push to extract value from AI through commerce integrations, enterprise tools, and platform control: companies need to justify capex that far exceeded near-term demand. The commercial test is whether companies can extract enough value before tariffs, geopolitical friction, and rising capital costs force a reckoning on spending discipline.