Token consumption grew 17 times last year, signaling AI infrastructure buildout is still in its infancy

Jay Jacobs, U.S. Head of Equity ETFs at BlackRock, stated that token consumption last year grew 17 times, and that major large language model providers' capital expenditure cannot keep up with AI demand.

BlackRock's internal model portfolios hold a 7.5% allocation to thematic ETFs, while the average moderate U.S. advisor model holds just 3.6% thematic exposure, with about 12% of analyzed U.S. advisor portfolios holding any thematic ETFs at all.

U.S. GEN AI infrastructure spending is about 0.8% of GDP, compared to 4.5% for U.K. railroads in the 1860s and about 2% for U.S. electricity in the 1920s, suggesting the AI physical buildout remains early-stage relative to other major transformational investments.