Building Resilient and Scalable AI Value Chains: A Nexus Strategy

Artificial intelligence is triggering one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in modern history. This report examines the growing AI-energy-water-minerals-land nexus, and the systemic risks emerging from poorly coordinated expansion. It argues that the future of AI will not be determined by technology alone, but by whether governments and industry can build resilient, sustainable and socially responsible infrastructure systems around it.

As technology companies invest hundreds of billions of dollars into advanced computing systems, the physical foundations of AI are rapidly expanding across the world. But behind the promise of AI lies an often-overlooked reality: AI depends on vast amounts of energy, water, land and critical minerals. Data centres require electricity and cooling. Chips and batteries rely on mineral extraction. Transmission corridors and computing facilities reshape land use patterns. The choices made today will decide whether AI becomes a driver of long-term prosperity and climate resilience, or a source of escalating environmental and resource stress.