[Hidden risks of AI investment boom Gartner warns that more than US$3.5 trillion in investments may face impairment] October 15th, according to analysis by market research firm Gartner Inc., by 2030, more than US$3.5 trillion in AI infrastructure investments may face asset impairment risks, because the investment boom in the industry may exceed the revenue growth sufficient to support these investments. AI data center owners will need to generate a cumulative revenue of $8.5 trillion by 2030 to cover capital expenditures and financing costs and achieve a 12% return on invested capital. However, Gartner expects revenue attributable to enterprise and consumer AI businesses to be at best $3.6 trillion during the same period, less than half the required level. Gartner predicts that cost pressures and limited differentiation will force more than 80% of new cloud service providers to no longer operate independently by 2030. Will Sommer, senior research director at Gartner, said that many of these new cloud service providers are trying to develop software and service businesses with higher profit margins and move closer to the business models of traditional cloud service providers, but only a few may succeed.