AI buildouts need $2 trillion in annual revenue to sustain growth, but massive cash shortfall looms — even generous forecasts highlight $800 billion black hole, says report

AI’s insatiable power appetite is both expensive and unsustainable. That’s the main takeaway from a new report by Bain & Company, which puts a staggering number on what it will cost to keep feeding AI’s compute appetite — more than $500 billion per year in global data-center investment by 2030, with $2 trillion in annual revenue required to make that capex viable. Even under generous assumptions, Bain estimates the AI industry will come up $800 billion short.

It’s a sobering reality check for…