IDC Featured in The Wall Street Journal on Rising AI Infrastructure Costs

Rick Villars, Group Vice President of Worldwide Research at International Data Corp (IDC), was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal, offering expert commentary on how new U.S. tariffs may drive up the cost of building AI infrastructure.

The article, “With Trump Tariffs, Even AI Could Get More Expensive”, explores how rising material costs – from steel to electrical transformers – could impact cloud providers racing to expand their data center networks. While semiconductors have been temporarily spared, the price of other critical components remains uncertain.

Villars noted that major cloud players have likely built a cushion of pre-purchased assets to protect against short-term volatility.

“They have probably built themselves up a prepurchased cushion,” said Villars, “but that can only last so long – perhaps a matter of months.”

This moment highlights a growing concern: the physical infrastructure powering artificial intelligence is increasingly vulnerable to shifts in trade policy and global supply chains – an issue enterprise tech leaders can’t afford to ignore.

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal: With Trump Tariffs, Even AI Could Get More Expensive