Against all expectations, the American economy continues to grow at a record pace. Yet, as new economic data shows, this growth is anything but healthy and driven almost entirely by the AI boom.
A new essay by podcaster and writer Derek Thompson examines the key economic indicators surrounding AI in 2026. Among the most striking is a bar chart showing growth in construction spending, a key indicator of economic stability.
Using data from Jason Furman, an economist at the Harvard Kennedy School, Thompson shows that growth in data center construction has exploded this year, while all but one other category has declined.
By the numbers, data center construction has increased at a rate of 64.5% over the past year, while new energy infrastructure has increased by 4.1% to keep pace as demand for electricity increases to fuel the AI boom.
Everything else collapsed: Multifamily housing construction fell 5.6 percent, while health care and retail construction fell 10.1 percent. Construction of new educational institutions fell 12.6 percent, while the manufacturing sector – believed to be a key target of the Trump administration – collapsed, shrinking almost 24 percent between 2025 and 2026.
Thompson is perhaps best known for his theory of “abundance,” a political program of deregulation that has its roots in neoliberal economic thought.
But if there’s an abundance in the U.S. economy right now, it’s clearly thanks to AI — and with investors increasingly skeptical about the sustainability of AI spending, it could only be a matter of time before data center spending comes crashing back down to Earth.
Learn more about data centers: Retired Air Force colonel warns Americans it’s dangerous to live near data centers because you could be targeted or killed
Gn bussni
