Generative AI drives 25% jump in global cloud spend, says Borneo Bulletin

The Borneo Bulletin piece puts numbers on something everyone in the field already feels: generative AI is now the primary driver of cloud growth. A near‑$99 billion quarter with 25% year‑on‑year growth means hyperscalers are plowing unprecedented capex into data centers, networking and accelerators. In practice, that capital stock becomes the substrate on which frontier‑scale experiments—and eventually AGI-class systems—are run.

The article’s point about cloud marketplaces becoming integrated procurement hubs is also telling. As more AI models and tools are sold through cloud-native marketplaces, the big three providers tighten their grip on distribution and usage data. That centralization could accelerate the pace at which new model capabilities are commercialized, but it also increases lock‑in and reinforces the dominance of a small number of US and Chinese firms in the AI infrastructure stack.

For the race to AGI, this reinforces the idea that compute access, not algorithms alone, is the main axis of competition. Regions and companies that lack direct routes into these hyperscale clouds—or the capital to build alternatives—will find themselves increasingly dependent on a few infrastructure gatekeepers to do serious AI work.