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AI capex is so big that it's affecting economic statistics

(paulkedrosky.com)
339 points throw0101c | 2 comments | 18 Jul 25 19:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.413s | source
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jonas21 ◴[18 Jul 25 21:09 UTC] No.44609857[source]▶
I don't know... 1.2% of GDP just doesn't seem that extreme to me. Certainly nowhere near "eating the economy" level compared to other transformative technologies or programs like:

- Apollo program: 4%

- Railroads: 6% (mentioned by the author)

- Covid stimulus: 27%

- WW2 defense: 40%

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kulahan ◴[18 Jul 25 21:17 UTC] No.44609929[source]▶
As a % of GDP it doesn’t seem very large, but that’s because our GDP is so massive. This is still an entire Norway’s worth of GDP.

Like 1.2% isn’t a big percentage, but neither is 3.4% - our total military expenditures this year.

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noosphr ◴[18 Jul 25 22:37 UTC] No.44610549[source]▶
The entire population of Norway fits in Queens and Brooklyn. If everyone there decided to whittle spoons we'd be midly concerned about just what got in their water, but it won't be an existential crisis for the rest of us.

I will never understand people who use tiny European countries as meaningful comparisons to continent sized ones.

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1. kulahan ◴[19 Jul 25 02:01 UTC] No.44611893[source]▶
It helps people understand scale, since there is only one other kinda similar economic machine, and it's China. The EU is too loosely coordinated to really compare.

The population of Queens and Brooklyn is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. I will never understand people who use massively outlier-sized cities as meaningful comparisons to nations.

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2. corimaith ◴[19 Jul 25 10:15 UTC] No.44614161[source]▶
Queens and Brooklyn are not outliers on the global scale. Most Asian countries has similar population densities if not higher. It's really the small cities in Europe that are the outliers here.