“Capex” was one of the words of the 2025 economic year and is likely to remain so for 2026. We heard a lot last year that investment spending in data centers had driven American economic growth. The hundreds of billions of dollars spent building artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure have benefited technology, construction and energy companies. But outside of these sectors, the rest of the world’s largest economy saw little or no growth last year. We have also witnessed phases of optimism about the continuation of these investments, alternating with episodes of fear about their cost and the debt they generate within technology giants like Oracle. What will it be this year? The growth of this investment spending should remain strong, although a little lower than what it was during the first nine months of 2025, according to Goldman Sachs, which explains in passing why the effect on economic growth remains weaker than one might imagine.
After increasing by 6.5% at an annualized rate between January and September 2025, investment spending is expected to grow by a further 5.5% in 2026 in the United States, according to a study by the American investment bank dated December 30.
