Hyperscalers have already outspent most famous US megaprojects
by nowflux on 4/17/2026, 4:23:22 PM
https://twitter.com/finmoorhouse/status/2044933442236776794
Comments
by: timmg
This tweet shows it as a percentage of US GDP:<p><a href="https://x.com/paulg/status/2045120274551423142" rel="nofollow">https://x.com/paulg/status/2045120274551423142</a><p>Makes it a little less dramatic. But also shows what a big **'n deal the railroads were!
4/17/2026, 4:50:23 PM
by: operatingthetan
Is this an appropriate spend and risk? I'm starting to feel as if we have been collectively glamoured by AI and are not making sound decisions on this.
4/17/2026, 6:15:32 PM
by: lukeschlather
This seems like a total category error. The Railroads are the only example that actually seems comparable, in being an infrastructure build out that's mostly done by a variety of private companies. Examples of things that would be worth comparing to the datacenter boom are factory construction and utilities (electrification in the first half of the 20th century, running water, gas pipes.)
4/17/2026, 5:17:14 PM
by: mattas
Is this _actual_ spend? Like dollars actually changing hands?<p>Or is this "we said we are going to invest $X"? What about the circular agreements?
4/17/2026, 6:17:42 PM
by: losvedir
Does anyone know what's included in "datacenter capex"? In particular, does that include spending for associated power generation? Because whether or not the AI craze pans out, if we've built a whole bunch of power plants (and especially solar, wind, hydro, etc) that would be a big win.
4/17/2026, 6:01:58 PM
by: pier25
<a href="https://xcancel.com/finmoorhouse/status/2044933442236776794" rel="nofollow">https://xcancel.com/finmoorhouse/status/2044933442236776794</a>
4/17/2026, 5:47:07 PM
by: kerblang
Adjusted for inflation?<p>edit - sorry, it is in fact adjusted, text is kinda hard to see
4/17/2026, 5:42:13 PM
by: cactacea
Really shows where our priorities are at as a country. SMH
4/17/2026, 6:23:09 PM
by:
4/17/2026, 5:45:32 PM
by: SpicyLemonZest
Gentle reminder that the cost of producing well-formatted graphs is much, much lower than it used to be. We grew up in a world where the mere existence of this graph would prove that someone put a great deal of effort into making it, and now it does not. I have no specific reason to doubt the information, but if you want to have reliable epistemic practices, you can no longer treat random graphs you find on social media as presumptively true.
4/17/2026, 5:43:43 PM
by: therein
I really dislike the term hyperscaler. Comes off very insincere. They came up with it themselves, didn't they? What's the official definition supposed to be now? Companies that are setting up as many GPU/TPU server clusters as possible for a demand that's yet to exist?
4/17/2026, 5:12:29 PM
by: metalman
we, the people, are the ultimate mega project, and it's showing
4/17/2026, 4:39:06 PM