A.I. by the Numbers

“Good morning. But first, let’s take a look at the A.I. economy.

 

A.I. by the numbers

 

Which artificial intelligence firm will become the biggest company ever to debut on the stock market? Anthropic offered the opening bid on Monday, when it released its plan to offer shares on the Nasdaq exchange.

 

The numbers are staggering. In the first half of this year, Anthropic earned $16.3 billion. In that same period, it lost $80.7 billion. But it’s growing fast. Its potential valuation in the initial public offering is $2 trillion.

 

Here’s what that number looks like, written out: $2,000,000,000,000. It’s hard to imagine. Two thousand billion dollars. The average U.S. household’s annual income is $126,700, according to the Census Bureau. That household would need nearly 16 million years in order to reach $2 trillion, and then only if it saved every single penny.

 

As companies and investors wrestle with the colossal size of the A.I. economy — and as the markets they serve grow anxious about whether it’s all just a bubble, sure to burst — Evan Gorelick and I thought an index would be a useful way to examine what’s happening. Numbers (even ginormous ones!) can help us understand what’s happening in the world.

 

Workers who reported using A.I. as part of their jobs in 2023: 30 percent

 

Workers who reported using A.I. as part of their jobs in 2025: 76 percent

 

Estimated number of American workers exposed to A.I. who may need to transition to new jobs: 11 million

 

Slowdown since 2023 in real wage growth for jobs highly exposed to A.I., compared with ones that are not: 6.7 percent

 

Amount of money Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta are projected to spend on A.I. infrastructure this year: $700 billion

 

Amount of debt taken on by hyperscalers, chipmakers, neoclouds and other companies providing data centers and electricity for the A.I. build out: at least $3 trillion

 

Share of projected S&P 500 earnings gains for this year driven directly by tech companies spending heavily on A.I.: two-thirds

 

Share of the world’s electricity that data centers currently consume: 1.5 percent

 

Share of the world’s electricity generated by Germany: 1.5 percent

 

Amount of money that campaigns and political action groups have spent on ads generated by A.I. for the U.S. midterm elections: $137 million

 

Share of those campaign ads that were produced by Republican campaigns or Republican-aligned political action committees: more than 80 percent

 

Number of federal laws passed to regulate the development of A.I. technology: 0” [1]

 

1. A.I. by the Numbers. Sifton, Sam.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Oct 28, 2026.