Big Tech spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure has surpassed global investment in oil and natural gas production, blockchain media outlet BeInCrypto reported on April 27 local time.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that a surge in data centre investment pushed major technology companies' capital spending above $400 billion in 2025. It said the figure could rise a further 75 percent in 2026.

Data centres are at the centre of this trend. The IEA said the sharp rise in spending by large technology companies has come alongside expansion of AI infrastructure. Combined capital spending by the five technology companies cited by the outlet exceeded $400 billion last year. With a projected 75 percent increase this year, AI infrastructure has emerged as a key pillar of global capital flows.

Demand indicators also support the investment expansion. Major AI model providers said active users have tripled over the past year, while revenue has surged five-fold. The outlet also suggested these figures help explain how investors are positioning around the AI sector.

Still, the pace of investment expansion has begun to outstrip companies' ability to finance it internally, which was cited as a burden factor. Data centre development has become so capital-intensive that it is hard to bear through corporate balance sheets alone, increasing the importance of raising external funds through capital markets. AI-related debt has in fact grown to $1.4 trillion, becoming the largest segment in the U.S. investment-grade corporate bond market.

This structure could make the pace of AI infrastructure expansion more sensitive to financial market sentiment. The outlet suggested that data centre buildouts and the resulting increase in energy consumption are likely to be heavily influenced by market psychology. That means the pace of expansion may vary depending on how investors view the profitability of AI infrastructure and on the direction of macroeconomic conditions and financing environments.

Pointing to this, the IEA said that understanding AI's impact on energy also requires closely tracking the technology's economic trajectory. It said energy demand cannot be viewed simply as a power issue, but also as a matter for capital markets and corporate investment strategies.

AI is also having a growing influence in stock markets. AI-related companies now account for 45 percent of the S&P 500's total market capitalisation, reaching a record high. With capital spending, debt market weight and stock market concentration all rising at the same time, AI is becoming a factor shaping global capital allocation beyond the technology sector.

In this situation, market focus splits in two. One is how long technology companies can absorb the increased infrastructure costs. The other is how much financial market volatility, in a structure more reliant on external funding, could shake data centre investment and energy demand. The competition in AI investment continues, but the pace of future expansion is increasingly likely to be determined not only by demand growth but also by financing conditions.