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AI Spend Shifts to Infrastructure, Baker Tilly

[ June 26, 2026   //   ]

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is reshaping investment priorities, with capital increasingly flowing toward the physical infrastructure needed to support AI rather than the applications themselves, according to a new Baker Tilly report.

The firm’s Investment Monitor: AI & Digital Infrastructure concludes that data centers, semiconductors, power infrastructure and related assets have become the preferred targets for venture capital, private equity and merger-and-acquisition activity as investors shift from funding AI model development to financing long-term deployment.

“The investment thesis is shifting from AI training to deployment and monetization,” the report states, noting that a new infrastructure layer is emerging between hyperscale cloud providers and enterprise users.

Among the report’s findings:

• AI venture capital investment exceeded US$210 billion during the first quarter of 2026, although more than half came from a single OpenAI funding round.

• Three of the 10 largest private equity technology deals since 2025 involved data center operators, totaling approximately US$60 billion.

• U.S. data center power demand is projected to nearly triple by 2030, with facilities expected to consume between 6.7 percent and 12 percent of total U.S. electricity by 2028.

The report argues that electricity availability—not capital—is becoming the primary constraint on AI infrastructure expansion.

“The binding constraint on buildout has shifted from capital to electricity,” Baker Tilly said, pointing to increasingly long utility connection timelines and growing competition for power generation capacity.

Semiconductors are also attracting greater investor attention. While AI chips account for a small share of total semiconductor unit volumes, they are expected to generate roughly half of industry revenue this year. The report cites forecasts that the global semiconductor market could surpass US$1 trillion by 2028, driven largely by AI-related demand.

For logistics providers and industrial developers, the shift extends beyond technology companies. Baker Tilly notes that construction of AI infrastructure requires coordinated investment in power, land, fiber connectivity, water resources and specialized supply chains, creating opportunities throughout the broader industrial ecosystem.

The report also finds that merger and acquisition activity is increasingly focused on infrastructure assets with long-term contracted cash flows rather than software companies whose valuations depend on future AI monetization. As a result, investors are placing higher premiums on physical assets such as semiconductor manufacturing, data centers and energy infrastructure than on many application-layer AI businesses.

Baker Tilly concludes that the next phase of AI investment will be determined less by advances in large language models than by the ability to build the physical infrastructure required to deploy them at scale, making power availability, digital infrastructure and supply chain resilience central to future growth.

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