🇹🇭 Thai, 23 October 2026, data center cost
Who's Paying for the World's Biggest Tech Revolution?
Investment in AI infrastructure is growing, but companies must consider the cost of building data centers and the time it takes to recoup their investment.
Behind the growth of AI is a continuous increase in high-cost infrastructure investment. Large tech companies must spend a lot of money to build data centers, buy processing chips, and increase processing power to meet customer demand. This investment is crucial because high-performance AI requires both hardware and systems that support widespread use.
However, high investment does not mean that businesses will make high profits. Investors must consider how much money companies spend on building assets and how long it takes to recover that investment. In accounting, investments in data centers and processing equipment are often recorded as capital expenditures (CapEx) and depreciated over their lifespan.
The risk is even greater when technology advances quickly, as high-performance chips and equipment today may be replaced by new technology before companies can fully recoup their investment. Meanwhile, competition forces providers to expand production capacity in advance to meet expected increasing demand.