IDC: Total global investment in artificial intelligence is expected to grow to US$1261.9 billion in 2029

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released the “Global Artificial Intelligence and Generative Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide”. According to the data, the total global investment in artificial intelligence (AI) IT in 2024 was US$315.9 billion, and is expected to increase to US$1,261.9 billion in 2029, with a five-year compound growth rate (CAGR) of 31.9%. Focusing on generative AI, IDC predicts that the five-year compound growth rate of the global generative AI market may reach 56.3%. By 2029, the global generative AI market will reach US$607.1 billion, accounting for 48.1% of the total investment in the AI market.

Global Artificial Intelligence Market Insights by Region

IDC divides the global artificial intelligence market into nine core regions, including the US, Canada, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific (excluding China and Japan), China, Japan, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, covering major global economic sectors and emerging growth markets.

Looking at the overall pattern of the global AI market in 2025, IDC data shows that the US continues to lead the development of the global artificial intelligence market with deep technology accumulation and leading enterprise layout, accounting for more than 55% of the market size; while China and the US, as the two major driving forces of the global AI industry, account for nearly 70% of the total market size.

Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly in Europe. The market size is estimated to be about 250 billion US dollars in 2029, of which the Western European market accounts for more than 90% of the entire European market.

The artificial intelligence industry in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America has accelerated markedly, with a five-year compound growth rate of 40%. Although the current market size base is relatively small, with the improvement of digital infrastructure in these regions and the release of demand for industry intelligence, it is expected to become a “new growth point” for the global AI market in the future.

Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, China has become the core growth engine of the Asia-Pacific artificial intelligence market with huge application scenarios and policies. Its market expenditure accounts for more than half of the total spending in the Asia-Pacific region; Japan accounts for about 15% of the Asia-Pacific AI market, making it the second largest pillar of the Asia-Pacific AI market.

China Market Insights

Focusing on China's AI spending, IDC data shows that China's total investment in artificial intelligence is expected to reach US$111.4 billion by 2029, with a five-year compound growth rate of 25.7%. China has fully deployed the “Artificial Intelligence +” initiative in terms of policy, promoted the deep integration of AI with various fields of the economy and society, and set three development goals for 2027, 2030, and 2035. Artificial intelligence will not only be elevated to a new level of national strategy, but will also be used as a key enabling technology to fully integrate and reshape all sectors of the national economy.

China Generative AI Market Insights

According to IDC data, in 2024, China's generative AI will account for 18.2% of the total investment in the AI market. With the rapid development of generative AI technology, the share of generative AI investment will reach 41.1% in 2029, with an investment scale of over 45 billion US dollars, and a five-year compound growth rate of 48.0%. IDC believes that generative AI is continuing to deepen its application value in multiple vertical fields and push the industry towards a new stage of automation and intelligence. Enterprise employees can use generative AI to generate structured business insights in real time and automatically complete multi-modal work report synthesis to improve strategic decision-making efficiency; developers can use it to achieve intelligent code refactoring, system architecture assistance design, automated bug fixing, and improve R&D efficiency and software reliability; in vertical fields such as industry, medical care, finance, etc., generative AI can help generate high-precision design simulation solutions, assist clinical diagnosis and reasoning, and automatically generate compliance risk control reports to drive industry innovation and economic efficiency improvement.

Artificial intelligence industry insights

Industry users are also actively exploring and creating application scenarios for generative AI, developing digital products and services, exploiting the value of data elements, and exploring intelligent business models. According to IDC data, software and information services, communications and banking are the three industries with the most investment in artificial intelligence, accounting for 43.5%, 7.0%, and 6.0% respectively in 2029.

Artificial intelligence application scenario insight

According to IDC data, in China's artificial intelligence application scenarios, intelligent infrastructure deployment has become the largest application scenario in the Chinese AI market, accounting for about 40% of the total AI market. This scenario covers IT infrastructure invested by infrastructure service providers to support the construction and operation of AI systems, including providing users with access to computing and storage resources, providing basic support for AI development, or directly delivering AI services to end customers. The second major application scenario is customer service and self-service enabled by artificial intelligence. The scenario relies on a dynamic knowledge base to automatically generate knowledge articles to respond efficiently to customer inquiries; it can also handle customer issues in real time and promote the upgrade of the self-service experience. The third major application scenario is enhanced contact center and field service. Through digital channels and an intelligent IVR system, this scenario helps customers solve problems and complete tasks, optimizes customer service scheduling and response mechanisms, and supports field technicians.

Zhang Wenhui, an analyst at IDC's China Spending Guide team, said that currently, the complexity and scale of generative AI models continue to increase rapidly, driving the booming development of the Chinese AI market. Enterprise application scenarios are becoming more and more diverse. AI is being implemented at an accelerated pace in vertical fields such as medical care, finance, and retail, and its empowering results are constantly showing. At the policy level, the country will promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence with the six key areas through clear milestones and systematic deployment, and accelerate the popularization of next-generation smart terminals and smart device applications. However, all industries are still facing key challenges: there is a need to further optimize the intelligent computing power layout and basic model capabilities, speed up the construction of a high-level AI open source community, promote the efficient collection of computing power, data and models, and build an open and collaborative innovation ecosystem. By constructing a system for collaborative development of technology, industry and governance, we can give full play to the empowering value of artificial intelligence and ultimately promote the full realization of an intelligent economy and an intelligent society.