The ‘Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report’ indicates that AI has witnessedextraordinary growth in users, usage volume, and caPital expenditure. chatgpt,as a prime example, has achiEVEd remarkable milestones.
ChatGPT’s user base has expanded at an astonishing rate. Its weekly activeuser base increased eight – fold in 17 months, hitting 800 million. It reached100 million users in just 0.2 years, outpacing historical foundationaltechnology products such as the Ford Model T, TiVo, and iPhone.
Unlike the 1.0 – era internet technologies that spread from the US globally,ChatGPT gained popularity almost simultaneously across most regions. By April2025, its mobile app had 530 million monthly active users worldwide, withIndian users accounting for the largest proportion (14%), followed by Americanusers (9%).
In terms of capital expenditure, the report shows a ‘rightward and upward’growth trend in AI – related fields. The annual growth rate of capitalexpenditures by six major US tech giants was 21% over the past decade,accelerating to 63% between 2023 and 2024, reaching $212 billion. By 2023, AIhad become a significant capital expenditure project.
This substantial investment reflects enterprises’ determination to drivegrowth through AI and fend off market competition. Microsoft’s Brad Smithnoted that AI and cloud – computing data centers represent the NEXt stage ofindustrialization, similar to past general – purpose technologies likeelectricity.
