Georgieva says AI spending and energy costs threaten uneven global growth
The IMF chief says artificial intelligence investment could outstrip spending on railways, power grids and telecoms, with benefits spread unevenly
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International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said energy and artificial intelligence related shocks are hitting economies unevenly around the world.
She said investment in artificial intelligence could exceed spending on railways, power grids and telecom networks, but that the benefits of that spending would not be shared evenly. She said an energy shock has been contained for now, but that elevated oil and diesel prices, along with gas shortages, may persist.
Georgieva said the construction boom around artificial intelligence, combined with energy and food shocks, could push inflation higher. She added that tariffs, defense spending and high levels of debt are adding further pressure to global growth.
The comments widen the IMF's recent country-specific warnings into a broader, systemic one. Rather than addressing a single country's policy, as it has with Australia's interest rate stance or Turkmenistan's data practices, Georgieva is now linking artificial intelligence capital spending directly to public debt sustainability and energy costs as simultaneous risks to global growth. That marks a shift from treating the AI buildout as a growth driver to treating it as a potential drag, at a time when investors have been pricing markets around continued heavy spending on AI infrastructure. Georgieva did not point to any specific policy response or upcoming data release, so there is no direct mechanical link to price moves yet, but the remarks signal that the IMF is watching whether AI investment risk and energy costs could compound existing debt vulnerabilities ahead of its next growth forecasts.