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When the first American railroads began reporting revenue in the 1840s, the critics who had called the whole enterprise an overbuilt fantasy found themselves with less and less to say.

Something similar is happening in AI right now.

Exponential View just published the most comprehensive accounting of the AI economy we’ve yet seen — its State of the AI Economy 2026 report — with real revenue, utilization, and capex payback math.

The numbers don’t leave much room for the bear narrative.