Crypto and AI could add $20 trillion to global GDP

Juan Leon, senior crypto research analyst at Bitwise, thinks the dual demand for AI and crypto will impact the global economy more than the public expects.

Anyone who has been observing the crypto industry or Wall Street has probably noticed that artificial intelligence (AI) technology is slowly (or not so slowly, as seen in Nvidia’s case) entering mainstream conversations.

One of these mainstream discussions took place at Consensus 2024; Here, Juan Leon stated that the intersection of AI and crypto will have a greater impact on global GDP than expected.

PwC predicts that artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency could contribute $15.7 trillion and $1.8 trillion to the global economy by 2030. But Leon writes: “Although this totals $17.5 trillion, I wouldn’t be surprised to see their synergies have a compounding effect that could drive the global economy to a total value of $20 trillion or even more.”

Leon believes the two sectors could collectively add $20 trillion to global GDP by 2030 due to data center scarcity and blockchain entrepreneurship.

Data center shortage

The AI ​​gold rush is creating a growing need for data centers, electricity, and AI chips; This is where Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies and technologies come into play. The world’s four largest cloud companies (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft) are expected to spend nearly $200 billion on data center deployments in 2025 alone to meet growing demand for AI services.

Demand for data centers is increasing, and approximately 83% of the capacity under construction is pre-leased. AI companies and cloud service providers are driving demand, commercial real estate firm CBRE Group reported in March. Data centers need help keeping up with the growing AI boom.

Bitcoin miners have the resources AI companies need, such as powerful chips and cutting-edge cooling systems, which has led to an increase in AI companies bidding for crypto data centers.

For example, Russian crypto mining equipment supplier Intelion plans to invest over $130 million to develop artificial intelligence data centers.

Moreover, Bitcoin mining group Core Scientific Inc. rejected an unsolicited $1 billion takeover offer from artificial intelligence startup CoreWeave Inc. All this attention benefits miners and the larger Bitcoin ecosystem by providing new revenue and supporting network security.

blockchain entrepreneurship

Crypto blockchains are accessible, public and immutable, making them ideal for countering AI abuses. Entrepreneurs are creating methods and businesses that will use this technology to combat the most harmful potential uses of AI. For example, some companies are using blockchain to create digital fingerprints for videos and ensure their authenticity by detecting manipulations.

Crypto and AI are also intersecting in virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa. Artificial intelligence combined with smart contracts and digital currencies such as Bitcoin can improve bots’ capabilities and increase productivity.

“Pairing AI assistants with smart contracts and digitally native money, such as bitcoin or stablecoins, designed to act securely without the slow oversight of centralized entities, could open new avenues to further increase our productivity,” Leon writes.

These technologies can verify everything from research to government communications and highlight blockchain’s role in AI surveillance (and vice versa).