Benedict Evans’ ‘AI Eats the World’ Examines Platform Shift and Business Transformation

Technology analyst Benedict Evans, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), sees generative AI as the next major platform shift after smartphones. Its significance lies not only in model capabilities, but also in whether companies can embed AI into workflows and overhaul their products and pricing models. As foundation models become increasingly commoditized, computing power or model performance alone is unlikely to provide a lasting competitive moat.

Evans updated “AI Eats the World” in May 2026. The report estimates that Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta spent about $400 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, exceeding the roughly $300 billion spent by the global telecommunications industry. It says infrastructure investment has already surged, while enterprise deployment remains at an early stage. OpenAI has separately proposed commitments for 30 GW of computing capacity costing $1.4 trillion, though investment returns and application demand remain unproven.