Generative artificial intelligence has sparked one of the biggest spending booms in modern American history, as companies and investors bet hundreds of billions of dollars that the technology will revolutionize the global economy and one day lead to massive profits.

Apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have attracted hundreds of millions of users, but relatively few people are paying for premium versions and businesses are still experimenting with how generative AI can increase their productivity.

Venture capitalists are similarly betting that at least a few AI startups could one day be worth billions or even trillions, even though most currently aren’t profitable. Venture-capital investments in AI startups are at $64.1 billion so far this year, putting them on track to approach a peak set during a broader investing upsurge in 2021. And the total share of VC investments going toward AI this year is the highest on record.

From early 2020 through this year, Microsoft has more than doubled its number of data centers. Google’s total is up 80% over the same period. Oracle is heavily focused on the business and plans to build 100 new data centers.

AI data centers are more power hungry than those built in the past, because AI chips require a constant and reliable source of energy to operate.