Following further on Jim’s assessment on slow but steady headline GDP growth, core GDP growth remains strong. But GDP growth relies on AI related investment spending. While core GDP is growing faster than GDP, actual is below 2023/24 trend. As for the importance of direct AI related expenditures, with the exception of Q2, the effect seems like a wash in an accounting sense, given information equipment and software investment vs. computer and semiconductor imports:FIgure 2: GDP growth SAAR (bold black), information equipment and software investment contribution (green bar), computer and semiconductor imports contribution (red bar), consumption (yellow bar), rest of GDP (blue bar). As for part of the AI universe, here’re total returns (unweighted) for the Magnificent 7 vs. SP500.