AI by the Numbers — 2026

How big is the AI market — and how much money is going in?

The global AI market was worth $255B in 2025 (Statista) and is forecast to exceed $1.2T+ by 2030 (Statista). Investors poured $202.3B into AI startups in 2025, nearly half of all venture funding (Crunchbase). Enterprise generative-AI spend hit $37B (Menlo Ventures).

How widely is AI actually used?

88% of organizations report regular AI use in at least one function (McKinsey). ChatGPT reached 900M weekly active users by early 2026 (a16z Top 100 Gen AI Apps), and 70% of Gen Z use AI weekly, more than any other age group (Gallup). Google AI Overviews alone reach 2B monthly users (TechCrunch / Google).

How much content is AI now creating?

More than 15B+ AI images have been created since 2022 (Everypixel Journal), at about 34M/day (Everypixel Journal). Suno generates 7M/day (TechCrunch), and 46% of code from GitHub Copilot users is AI-generated (GitHub / Second Talent).

Is AI getting cheaper and more capable?

The cost of GPT-3.5-level output fell 280x (Stanford HAI AI Index 2025), while the largest LLM context window grew to 10M (Morph LLM). That scale has an energy cost: data centres are projected to use 945 TWh by 2030, with AI the main driver (IEA Energy and AI).

Does AI deliver a return?

Businesses report $3.50 returned for every dollar invested in AI customer support (Zendesk). Over a decade, generative AI could add a 7% to global GDP (Goldman Sachs). Regulators have authorized 1,300+ AI-enabled medical devices (Definitive Healthcare / FDA).