This morning, while having breakfast at home, a piece of TV news attracted my attention. The economics journalist said that, according to some studies, all the money so far invested in AI should generate a revenue figure larger than what the entire Google group makes currently. I guessed it should be a remarkable number but, to have a better idea, I searched on Statista.com and found what follows.
In the third quarter of 2025, Google’s revenue amounted to over $102.21 billion, up from the $87.86 billion registered in the same quarter a year prior. The company amounted to an annual revenue of $348.16 billion throughout 2024, its highest value to date, with most of its earnings being powered by advertising through Google sites and its network.
The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) reports that in 2024, U.S. private AI investment grew to $109.1 billion—nearly 12 times China’s $9.3 billion and 24 times the UK’s $4.5 billion. Generative AI saw particularly strong momentum, attracting $33.9 billion globally in private investment—an 18.7% increase from 2023.
On top of numbers we have to consider at least three major parameters: energy/environment, chips and jobs.
Energy/Environment – Many have said that large computers dedicated to AI are highly energy-intensive systems and this implies they need to be properly power-supplied with electricity coming from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and suitably cooled to avoid dangerous effects on the environment. We still don’t know how many data centres satisfy this requirement. It is reported, though, those in the United States consumed 183 Terawatt-hours in 2024 (over 4% of national electricity use) and are projected to more than double by 2030.
Chips – The issue of chip makers is also very important, because this will decide which market(s) will be successful in the future and which countries could be economically independent. Unfortunately, we could already say Europe will be a minor player. As a matter of fact, the big fight is between the US, China and Asia, with the last two having more chances to succeed. As well described last week on the Wall Street Journal in the article “It Really Is Possible to Spend Too Much on AI“, the race to AI for Intel has been a blood bath and now the company is valued at around $171 billion, roughly 1/26 the valuation of AI chip giant Nvidia. Intel was worth more than Nvidia just five years ago.
On the other hand, the article “From Singapore to Malaysia, tech firms double down on AI despite bubble fears” – published last week on the South China Morning Post – reassure (?) readers on AI’s future as states: “Bubble bursting? Not here. Meet the regional founders who see a potential global AI crash as a ‘healthy’ correction“. An excellent comment is: “Everything is labelled as AI even when there’s no real AI inside. That won’t end well […] A correction will wipe out the noise, and that’s actually healthy for the region”. As a consequence, investors in Southeast Asia have been becoming more selective and focusing on AI companies that could ride on the growth of industries with strong fundamentals such as fintech, logistics and manufacturing.
Jobs – They represent the third issue. The current fear, which always happen when a new technology appears on the market, is the wide adoption of AI will cause a dramatic loss of jobs. Personally, I believe there will be a change in duties and skills and if companies will be farsighted enough, they could organise training courses for their workforce in order to contain the layoff number. However, today on the Financial Times there is an article “Top consultancies freeze starting salaries as AI threatens ‘pyramid’ model” which starts with “productivity gains from technology are spurring debate about reliance on large numbers of junior advisers” and this could have two consequences: fewer people employed with lower salaries. However – the articles continues – “AI disruption is more real in professional services and technology than in the rest of the economy“.
Despite nothing has been already decided yet as the future landscape is not clear, some debates have already started circulating and fear engendered.
Some of you may remember I already talked about AI in my August 2025 editorial, but this subject is evolving rapidly with novelties happening every week. Last August many were excited by the AI revolution and nobody thought AI could be a financial bubble; a few weeks ago many investors were pretty sure this was a bubble and nearly ready to explode; in these days there is less hysteria and more rational approach about this kind of (deep) digital transformation.
In conclusion, the current level of AI development allows some interesting improvements in traffic and transport management as well as biology and medicine researches. From this scenario, which could consider them as “niches”, what is going to happen in other fields and how fast AI is going to improve productivity while generating reliable results, this is still to be proved.
Stefano Mainero
EPN Consulting and EPN Consulting Research and Innovation Founder & CEO
Article written by human beings without any use of AI. EPN Consulting Ltd. copyright 2025
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