The Growth of AI

The scale of AI usage is accelerating rapidly. Google first‑party AI models are now processing over 16 billion tokens per minute, up from 10 billion last quarter, with global token consumption projected to rise from roughly 50 trillion tokens per day today to quadrillions by 2030. Tokens are units of data processed by AI models. Generally, 1 token is approximately 4 characters or 0.75 words in English. Over the past 12 months alone, 330 Google Cloud customers processed more than 1 trillion tokens each, while 35 surpassed the 10 trillion mark. Behind this surge sits a growing physical constraint: a single 100‑word AI prompt can consume around half a litre of water, and global data‑centre water demand is expected to more than double by 2030, increasingly concentrating AI growth in regions where water stress is already acute.

Sources: Alphabet, Nvidia, Copilot, Bank of America, Goodbody Asset Management.