The AI industry must generate $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 to keep funding the infrastructure needed to meet anticipated demand, and this will require imaginative new uses beyond simply enhancing employee productivity. That $6 trillion figure comes from the 2026 annual Global Technology Report from management consultants Bain & Company, which put its thinking cap on to figure out how the AI sector can possibly meet this challenge. It says the massive demand for AI compute infrastructure has revived the hardware industry. Some of the fastest growing segments include high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in GPUs, advanced packaging and custom silicon, and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) all scaling rapidly. As The Register reported last year, AI spending is actually keeping the US economy out of recession, with datacenter infrastructure and model development providing the only significant growth areas. Bain points to the “arms race” among hyperscalers for AI capacity, claiming that capital expenditure by Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle could hit $780 billion for the whole of 2026, nearly five times the level seen just three years earlier. By 2031, it estimates that annual spending on AI infrastructure could reach $1.5 trillion, a figure that is not far off the $1.6 trillion forecast separately by analyst firm Omdia. The $6 trillion comes from the Bain's assumption that capital expenditure will amount to about 25 percent of industry revenue, an ambitious but reasonable percentage based on trends among cloud providers, it says. Bain expects that existing applications of AI will grow, but estimates these will add up to a total between $1.2 trillion and $1.8 trillion in revenue. This includes consumer AI, via subscriptions and advertisements, plus enterprise AI, through software development, sales, marketing, customer service, and IT operations. That leaves a remaining $4.2 trillion of additional revenue for the industry to find from somewhere. Four possible categories emerge from Bain’s research as possibilities to fill this gap. It says that AI models are replacing search engines and integrating ads to generate new revenue, which means the developers could unlock $100 billion to $200 billion of extra cash. Secondly, AI to make autonomous cars, trucks, and drones, as well as other industrial automation, could create new products and services worth about $400 billion, Basin estimates. A similar category is physical AI, in which category it includes simulations, digital twins, and robotics, with a calculated worth of as much as $900 billion. Those three add up to $1.5 trillion, leaving Bain with a $2.7 trillion shortfall. What could make up the rest of the AI industry revenue? It puts forward “new products and uses that don’t exist today,” which is the kind of answer that your granny could have come up with. In this category it stuffs AI-driven drug discovery, mental health support that might address billions of dollars in unmet demand, materials science breakthroughs in areas such as battery technology and semiconductors, and accelerating scientific research in fields from neuroscience to fusion energy. “The debate today is fixated on employee productivity. The economics of AI infrastructure demand trillions in new revenue beyond productivity gains. What the industry needs is a wave of innovation that will dwarf what mobile and cloud unlocked,” said David Crawford, chairman of Bain’s global Technology practice. It is only a year since a previous report of Bain’s forecast that the industry would need to hit $2 trillion in revenue by 2030 to keep feeding the infrastructure beast. That figure has now trebled, which is perhaps an indication of just how much the investment going into AI has ballooned over the past 12 months. There are reasons to think the AI industry is not going to hit $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031. The Register has published numerous reports indicating that AI rollouts are just not paying off, such as this one, this one or this one. At the same time, doubts are being cast over whether all those AI infrastructure projects will be realized. A report from investment bank Jefferies found only half the US datacenter capacity scheduled for 2026 is actually under construction and work is yet to begin on as much as 80 percent of the 2028 pipeline. Another report from the same company suggested that chip manufacturing constraints will limit how many planned AI server farms can be brought online over the next several years. ®

Afgelopen weekend werden vijf mannen met bivakmutsen aangehouden naast een militaire basis bij het dorpje Fairford. Was hier min of meer toevallig een bomaanslag verijdeld, of waren de mannen iets heel anders van plan? Eén zekerheid en drie onzekerheden over de zaak.

Met een nieuwe richtlijn wil het Openbaar Ministerie dat fysiek geweld tegen hulpverleners strenger wordt aangepakt. De hogere strafeis komt neer op een verdubbeling vergeleken met misdrijven tegen andere mensen.

Paulien Cornelisse stierf in het Antoni van Leeuwenhoek-ziekenhuis in Amsterdam aan kanker. Dat maakte haar management woensdag bekend in een persbericht. In augustus 2024 maakte de schrijfster en theatermaker bekend dat ze ziek was. Drie jaar eerder kreeg ze voor het eerst de diagnose schildklierkanker, nadat ze bij een optreden in talkshow Jinek een mail van een chirurg had gehad die waarschuwde dat ze naar een plek in haar nek moest laten kijken.

Independent commission accuses country of failing Indigenous people, amid rising tensions over land rights

An independent commission set up by the Swedish state has called on the country’s government to apologise for the “harm and injustice inflicted upon the Sami people” and to start a national process for “redress and reconciliation”.

The Truth Commission for the Sami People also called for a special apology to be issued urgently to elderly Sami people who were forced as children to attend segregated so-called “nomad school” and other boarding schools where they were “subjected to violations or abuse”.

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JERUZALEM (ANP/RTR) - Israël schroeft de beveiliging van zijn commerciële luchtvaart op. Dat meldt het kantoor van premier Benjamin Netanyahu, nadat eerder op woensdag een incident had plaatsgevonden in een toestel van flydubai dat op weg was naar Tel Aviv. Eerder zei de Israëlische premier al in een videoboodschap dat hij zijn veiligheidsdiensten had opgedragen zich voor te bereiden op "verdere bedreigingen".

In de cockpit van het flydubai-toestel viel een van de piloten zijn collega aan, waarna andere inzittenden de aanvaller moesten overmeesteren. Het toestel werd vervolgens middels een noodlanding aan de grond gebracht in Tabuk. De Israëlische minister van Defensie Israel Katz sprak nadien van een jihadistisch gemotiveerde terreurpoging. Bewijs voor die bewering gaf hij niet. De aanvaller is gearresteerd.

Nog altijd is veel onduidelijk over wat precies is voorgevallen. De luchtvaartmaatschappij heeft opgeroepen niet te speculeren over de toedracht van het voorval. Het incident wordt onderzocht.

KEULEN (ANP) - Het Europees Agentschap voor de veiligheid van de Luchtvaart (EASA) waarschuwt luchtvaartmaatschappijen voor risico's in het luchtruim van Saudi-Arabië. De aanleiding is een toename van aanvallen door de aan Iran gelieerde Houthi-rebellen.

"Naast olie- en energie-infrastructuur zijn ook militaire en luchtvaartgerelateerde infrastructuren in heel Saudi-Arabië herhaaldelijk doelwit geweest van raketten en drones", aldus de EASA.

Volgens het EASA vergroten de herhaaldelijke raket- en droneaanvallen, in combinatie met de activering van het luchtverdedigingssysteem, het risico dat reguliere lijnvluchten mogelijk verkeerd worden geïdentificeerd. Het advies geldt voor alle hoogtes en alle vliegniveaus.

Het incident met flydubai eerder op de woensdag heeft niets met dit advies te maken. Tijdens de vlucht zou een van de piloten van het toestel de andere vlieger hebben aangevallen, volgens de Israëlische premier Benjamin Netanyahu met de bedoeling het toestel te laten neerstorten.

sz-da has added a photo to the pool:

Mount Tō (塔ノ岳)

Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic: how far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.
This Sunday is the first round of the General Election in Brazil. Lula vs Fabio Bolsonaro.
The Arrest of a Bolsonaro Ally Revealed Trump & Rubio Techno-Fascist Meddling in Brazilian Elections.
This week, the National Conference of Bishops of Brasil lost access to its X account.
John Oliver: Yet again, Brazil finds itself having to choose between Lula and a guy named Bolsonaro for president, and many do not seem thrilled that those are their main choices,

A Datafolha poll indicates that Lula has 40% of voting intentions in the first round, compared with 36% for Flávio Bolsonaro. In the second round, there is a tie: the president has 47% and the senator, 45%. The margin of error is two percentage points, plus or minus. A Lula on the ground rally called at short notice. I want you to think about what work was done here by the previous government. What did the other presidents of the republic do here, in the history of Pernambuco?" he began. "I ask you, who created the SAMU (public ambulance system)?" "Lula!" answered the crowd. "Who created the Farmácia Popular [free prescription drug service]? Who created it for everyone to use?" "Lula!" "Who built Highway 101?" "Lula!" "Who is finishing the Trans-Northeast Highway?" "Lula!" "Who built the Petrobras refinery in Suape?" "Lula!" "Who established a pharmaceutical industry in the town of Goiana [Pernambuco]?" "Lula!" "Who built seven new federal universities? Who created more jobs? Who created the Minha Casa Minha Vida social housing program?" "Lula!" "And what did they ever create?" "Nothing!"