Artificial intelligence becomes a key engine of world trade

Rising global demand for artificial-intelligence infrastructure is significantly altering international trade patterns. Hardware linked to AI — including semiconductors, servers, networking equipment and data-center components — is being traded across borders in rapidly increasing volumes. Recent data indicate that trade in these AI-related goods expanded by roughly 65 percent within a single year.

The surge is driven primarily by massive investments in digital infrastructure. Building new data centers requires large quantities of specialized equipment, from high-performance chips to cooling systems and power technology. As a result, new global supply chains are emerging, supplementing — and in some cases reshaping — traditional trade structures. AI is therefore not merely a software phenomenon but a capital-intensive industrial cycle with tangible goods moving worldwide.

Demand is concentrated in a small number of technology hubs. The United States benefits most, as many leading AI companies as well as key chip designers and cloud providers are based there. This concentration is increasing technological dependence for other regions.

Europe currently plays a comparatively limited role in this shift. Although new data centers are also being built across the continent, Europe lags behind the US and parts of Asia in critical technologies such as advanced semiconductors. This structural gap is increasingly reflected in trade flows.

International organizations have already noted that trade in AI-related products — particularly semiconductors, servers and telecommunications equipment — is growing faster than global merchandise trade overall and is becoming a major driver of cross-border commerce. The trend underscores that artificial intelligence is transforming not only digital markets but the physical global economy through infrastructure investment, energy demand and hardware production.

SK