New data available to Datastream subscribers show the extent of the booming data centre market. The series shows a clear change in trend coinciding with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 and now represents almost 5 per cent of all US non-residential structures investment. While this represents less than 1 per cent of all US investment, the trajectory remains clear. (It should be noted that this series includes only the structure-related investment in data centres and not the equipment that furnishes them, although the latter might reasonably be expected to rise in line with the former.) Question marks about the sustainability of these investments have been raised in recent weeks amid the recent sell-off of tech-based equities. Indeed, recent Fathom research highlighted how heavily big tech has gambled on a continued artificial intelligence boom, flagging that the average capex-to-revenue ratio of the so-called ‘Magnificent 7’ topped 16 per cent in 2025. For this investment to be justified, artificial intelligence will have to yield a significant boost to productivity. The jury remains out on whether this will be the case, although it should be noted that US labour productivity growth has topped 2 per cent since late 2023, having averaged just 1.2 per cent between 2012 and 2019.