AI drives business investment boom

David Llewellyn-Smith

Friday 28 November 2025

The robots are coming for your job. Expected capex is through the roof. Via the ABS.

Total capital expenditure

Estimate 4 for 2025-26 is $191.3b
This is 9.4% higher than Estimate 3 for 2025-26

In this very rare case, the outcome is not related to mining. It is AI.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.