Worldwide AI Spending Will Total $2.5 Trillion in 2026

Worldwide spending on AI is forecast to total $2.52 trillion in 2026, a 44% increase year-over-year, according to Gartner, Inc. a business and technology insights company.

“AI adoption is fundamentally shaped by the readiness of both human capital and organizational processes, not merely by financial investment,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Organizations with greater experiential maturity and self-awareness are increasingly prioritizing proven outcomes over speculative potential.

“Because AI is in the Trough of Disillusionment throughout 2026, it will most often be sold to enterprises by their encumberment software provider rather than bought as part of a new moonshot project,” said Lovelock. “The improved predictability of ROI must occur before AI can truly be scaled up by the enterprise.”

Building AI foundations alone will drive a 49% increase in spending on AI-optimized servers, representing 17% of total AI spending (see Table 1). AI infrastructure will also add $401 billion in spending as a result of technology providers building out AI foundations.

Table 1: Worldwide AI Spending by Market, 2025-2027 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Market	2025	2026	2027
AI Services	439,438	588,645	761,042
AI Cybersecurity	25,920	51,347	85,997
AI Software	283,136	452,458	636,146
AI Models	14,416	26,380	43,449
AI Platforms for Data Science and Machine Learning	21,868	31,120	44,482
AI Application Development Platforms	6,587	8,416	10,922
AI Data	827	3,119	6,440
AI Infrastructure	964,960	1,366,360	1,748,212
Total AI Spending	1,757,152	2,527,845	3,336,690

Source: Gartner (January 2026)

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