Consider the extraordinary parallels between today’s AI boom and the 19th-century railway boom, parallels that are pregnant with both warnings and lessons.

The railway revolution shrank physical space. The digital revolution opened and then organized cyber space. The railway revolution transformed every bit of the economy that it touched. Ditto the digital revolution. Both revolutions were masterminded by a handful of titans who became mega-rich in the process.

AI has multiplied the parallels. First, hitherto, the digital empires have been asset lite, while the railways were necessarily asset heavy. AI is forcing IT companies to spend as never before in the physical economy, with McKinsey and Co. predicting that they will invest $5.2 trillion on chips and data centers in the next five ye

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