Concerns over AI spending continue to drive much of the conversation on Wall Street in the first few weeks of 2026, with bulls arguing we’re still in the early stages of a massive shift that will see companies spend billions more on the technology over the coming years.
Bears, on the other hand, say that the investor-driven AI explosion is overhyped and that we’re in the midst of a dot-com-like bubble that will inevitably burst.
For now, it looks like companies will continue to pour money into AI through at least 2027. According to business and technology insights firm Gartner, global AI spending will hit $2.53 trillion in 2026 and reach a staggering $3.33 trillion in 2027.
The bulk of spending will be focused on AI infrastructure, with companies expected to drop $1.36 trillion building the backbone of their AI futures in 2026 and another $1.75 trillion in 2027.
In October, Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang announced during the company’s GTC event in Washington, D.C., that the company is poised to sell $500 billion worth of GPUs through the end of 2026.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su said during the company’s Financial Analyst Day in November that she anticipates the data center market alone will be worth $1 trillion by 2030.
Read more: Are we in an AI bubble? How to protect your portfolio if your AI investments turn against you.
“There’s no problem with the spending,” Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst John-David Lovelock told Yahoo Finance.
According to Lovelock, AI chip manufacturers have sold out their inventory for the next 18 to 24 months. Server manufacturers are in the same boat.
The analyst said Gartner determines future spending based on what was spent last year, as well as projections for this year and the next.
“We are still seeing love letters being written, you know, ‘Please, sell me your equipment.’ We don’t see a slowdown happening in the data center space,” Gartner added.
It’s not just the hardware. According to Lovelock, companies will also continue to plow money into developing AI software, models, and data science.
But the AI market could be entering what Gartner calls the trough of disillusionment, referring to the point in a hype cycle when the excitement of a new technology begins to fade and reality sets in.
If it’s not meeting prior expectations, some companies may pull back on spending. Others may be more wary about how much they spend more generally.
We’ve seen this in recent years with previously hot technology trends like virtual reality and the metaverse.
