AI investment is reshaping world economy — but only a few countries are capturing gains, UN warns

Global investment and productivity are largely driven at the moment by artificial intelligence, but its benefits are being reaped and captured by only a handful of advanced and developed economies, raising concerns that the technology could widen income and development gaps across the world, the United Nations warned on Thursday.

According to the UN’s flagship World Economic Situation and Prospects 2026 (WESP) report, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, clean-energy technologies and digital infrastructure are now “spurring new waves of investment and innovation,” but this activity remains “heavily concentrated in a few major economies with substantial technological and financial capacity, leaving many countries behind and exacerbating existing disparities.”

The boom in corporate investment is reflected in the rising investment over the last few years. The UN report throws light on rising corporate investment into AI and shows that investment has risen from $87 billion in 2022 to $93.1 billion in 2023 before surging to $150.6 billion in 2024.

The same report highlights that the US dominated the AI investment boom and constituted around 73 per cent total global corporate AI spending in 2024, showing the rising concentration of the AI economy. In Asia, the UN also highlights that even though the global investments have stayed muted, India recorded strong growth in gross fixed capital formation—a proxy of investment—riding on the back of increased public spending on digital infrastructure linked to AI-enabled production and data systems.

It’s not only the benefits divide that attracted the UN’s attention; it’s also the rapid expansion of AI leading to infrastructure strain. The report noted that data centres are highly concentrated mainly in the US. Europe and China are expected to account for around 10 per cent of global electricity demand growth between 2024 and 2030 and could consume nearly 1,000 terawatt hours annually by 2030, more than Japan’s current total electricity use.

This surge in demand could push up electricity prices and strain power grids, particularly in countries hosting dense clusters of AI data centres.

As the advanced economies power ahead, the UN also warned that many developing countries lack the digital infrastructure, skills, and investment capacity needed to participate fully in the AI economy. The report highlights that only 30 per cent of developing countries and just 12 per cent of the least developed countries had a national AI strategy in 2023, against 64 per cent of developed economies.
The report cautions that without large-scale investments in digital infrastructure, workforce skills, social protection, and governance frameworks, the AI revolution could reinforce existing inequalities, reduce labour’s share of income, and widen global productivity and income gaps.