{"id":1114,"date":"2026-04-08T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/1114\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T23:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:12:09","slug":"ai-fuels-global-trade-growth-as-china-us-flows-shift-mckinsey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/1114\/","title":{"rendered":"AI fuels global trade growth as China-US flows shift, McKinsey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/tech\/article\/3348910\/china-build-inclusive-ai-network-ease-cost-pressures-small-firms?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Artificial intelligence<\/a> has emerged as the driving force behind global trade growth, fuelled by a surge in data-centre buildouts at a time when geopolitical tensions are redrawing trade flows, according to McKinsey &amp; Company.<a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3349351\/china-enforces-new-security-rules-defend-supply-chains-global-threats?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Global trade<\/a> grew 6.5 per cent last year, outpacing the world economy, with AI-linked goods accounting for about one-third of that increase, McKinsey\u2019s research showed.The category \u2013 including <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/tech\/tech-war\/article\/3349072\/semiconductor-ai-talent-race-heats-taiwan-tightens-crackdown-alleged-poaching?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">semiconductors<\/a>, graphics cards, routers and servers \u2013 has been propelled by the race to expand computing capacity, led largely by the US, which added roughly half of the world\u2019s new data-centre capacity in 2025.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201c[The trend] is on the longer side than the shorter \u2026 with multi-year, long-term investments,\u201d said Kweilin Ellingrud, senior partner at McKinsey &amp; Company and director at McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the consultancy\u2019s economy and business research arm, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.<\/p>\n<p>Ellingrud said <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/tech\/article\/3346506\/companies-ramp-ai-spending-even-most-pilots-fail-deploy-lenovo-executive?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AI capital expenditure<\/a> was escalating as companies and countries raced to avoid being left behind, likening the current investment push to a \u201cspace race\u201d but with far greater economic rewards.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"AI capital expenditure is escalating as companies and countries race to avoid being left behind, says Kweilin Ellingrud. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/647a33e0-ab4a-4b55-9b7b-2475a32ca0b0_edd804f5.jpg\" title=\"AI capital expenditure is escalating as companies and countries race to avoid being left behind, says Kweilin Ellingrud. Photo: Handout\"\/>AI capital expenditure is escalating as companies and countries race to avoid being left behind, says Kweilin Ellingrud. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Since 2022, industries including semiconductors, cloud services and AI software have added US$500 billion in revenues and US$11 trillion in market capitalisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence has emerged as the driving force behind global trade growth, fuelled by a surge in data-centre&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,1412,387,1415,1416,1417,1413,1418,1414,1419,156,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-1114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-asean","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-jeongmin-seong","14":"tag-kweilin-ellingrud","15":"tag-mckinsey","16":"tag-mckinsey-global-institute","17":"tag-south-china-morning-post","18":"tag-thailand","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-vietnam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}