Macroeconomic Indicators & Trends

October 12, 2026

AI Building vs. AI Buying: The Transatlantic Split

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Torsten Slok

Partner, Chief Economist

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The US and Europe have fundamentally different roles in the AI economy. One is building it, and the other is using it. The US dominates on every supply-side measure: hyperscaler capex approaching $800 billion in 2026, data center capacity three times that of Europe and the dominant share of global AI models and semiconductor value, see the first three charts below.

Yet on adoption, several European countries are actually ahead of the US, and many European firms are using AI in their businesses (see the fourth and fifth charts). This suggests Europe is an eager user of infrastructure it did not build and cannot easily replicate.

The bottom line is that the US is the dominant AI builder, but both the US and Europe are AI adopters. For more, see our new chart book: The macro implications of the AI investment boom: US and Europe

Written by Huw van Steenis

Download high-res chart book


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