Nobody yet knows the eventual returns from hyperscaler high-performance computing investments, but SpaceX has estimated the artificial intelligence total addressable market at $26.5 trillion.
If that seems questionable, Morgan Stanley projects a $25 trillion market for AI-powered robots alone by 2050.
But such estimates always are contentious, partly because they rely on decades of growth, and the inclusion of many categories of revenue that might also be placed elsewhere.
Consider the range of estimates for the current value of the “internet” ecosystem, which has had nearly three decades to develop.
One of the challenges in estimating the "internet economy" is that there is no universally accepted definition.
Depending on what is included, estimates range from roughly $7 trillion (counting only direct digital-industry revenues) to well over $40 trillion (counting all commerce conducted over internet-enabled channels).
Internet ecosystem segment | Estimated 2026 annual revenue (US$ trillions) | Value Chain Segments | Sources |
Global IT spending | 6.3 | Hardware, software, IT services, communications supporting digital infrastructure | Gartner (Gartner) |
Global telecommunications services | 1.3–1.4 | Fixed and mobile connectivity; largely overlaps Gartner communications services | Gartner (Gartner) |
Public cloud infrastructure (IaaS/PaaS) | 0.4–0.5 | AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and other providers | Gartner forecast and industry estimates (Gartner) |
SaaS / enterprise software | 1.4 | Includes enterprise application and infrastructure software | Gartner (Gartner) |
Digital advertising | 0.7–0.8 | Search, social, retail media, video, display | (Digital Applied) |
Consumer internet subscriptions | 0.2–0.3 | Streaming, gaming, digital media, subscriptions | Industry estimates |
E-commerce platform revenues (fees, commissions—not merchandise value) | 0.3–0.5 | Amazon Marketplace, Shopify ecosystem, eBay, Alibaba, etc. | Industry estimates |
Digital payments revenues | 0.2–0.3 | Payment processing and fintech platforms | Industry estimates |
Adding these components (while avoiding obvious double counting where possible) suggests a reasonable market of perhaps $7 trillion to $11 trillion.
Definition | Estimated 2026 revenue |
Narrow definition (digital infrastructure, software, cloud, advertising, platforms) | $7–9 trillion |
Broader definition (including telecom and digital media) | $9–11 trillion |
That is still big, but nowhere near the $26 trillion figure. It might be more correct to say that, eventually, AI might be essential for supporting a wide range of economic activities that do range up into double-digit trillions of dollars.
So the SpaceX TAM is to be discounted by perhaps an order of magnitude.
All we can measure, in the near term, is the capital investment and a relatively small, but fast-growing set of revenue streams.
Segment | Revenue / spending level | Growth rate |
Global corporate AI investment | $581.69B in 2025 | +129.9% YoY linkedin |
Global private AI investment | $344.66B in 2025 | +127.5% YoY linkedin |
Generative AI private investment | $170.87B in 2025 | >200% YoY linkedin |
AI infrastructure, models, research, governance funding | $143.22B in 2025 | Steepest growth among focus areas; exact YoY not stated linkedin |
AI software market, worldwide | ~$251B in 2027 | 31.4% CAGR from 2022 to 2027 businesswire |
AI platforms | Noted as one of the largest AI software categories | 35.8% CAGR, 2023–2027 businesswire |
AI applications | Roughly one-third of AI software revenue in 2023 | 21.1% CAGR, 2023–2027 businesswire |
AI systems infrastructure software | Smaller category in 2023 | 32.6% CAGR, 2023–2027 businesswire |
AI application development and deployment software | Smaller category in 2023 | 38.7% CAGR, 2023–2027 businesswire |
Generative AI platforms and applications | $55.7B forecast for 2027 | Forecast only; growth rate not stated in source businesswire |
OpenAI annualized revenue | $25B by early 2026 | Fastest-style scale-up; source describes exponential growth, not a formal CAGR linkedin |
Anthropic annualized revenue | $19B by early 2026 | Fast growth; source describes rapid rise, not a formal CAGR linkedin |
xAI annualized revenue | $428M by early 2026 | Fast growth; source describes rapid rise, not a formal CAGR linkedin |
Mistral AI annualized revenue | $400M by early 2026 | Fast growth; source describes rapid rise, not a formal CAGR linkedin |
But near-term capex will still dwarf revenues.
source: Futurum Group
source: Goldman Sachs
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