AI industry meme

2024-05-18 16:33

Experience

I always keep an eye for women I see in meetings - there are still not enough senior women in finance - and I give and receive a look that I think says “I see you”. It was really special to “see” women leaders from our most valued clients at the recent BlackRock Female Leadership Forum. Congratulations Jackie Torres and team for a superb coming together of the minds, I am looking forward to next year’s FLF already!

At the event Larry Fink talked about significant opportunities around AI #datacentre and #infrastructure build out, and the race is on. A review of available research points to data centres’ share of total US power demand 2X or more by the end of the decade (chart). Can power grid grow this quickly? The constraint is real. I find it mind boggling that AI, thought to be the mega force that alleviates constraints and boosts productivity over time, could turn out to be first and foremost inflationary through energy, copper and materials demand. We are doing a lot of work on sequencing of AI macro impact and sizing the quantum of #capex spend - stay tuned.