China's AI market IT spending is expected to exceed $26.6 billion in 2026, accounting for approximately 8.9% of the global market

IDC reports that total global AI IT investment will be $92.95 billion in 2021 and is expected to increase to $301.43 billion in 2026, with a five-year compound growth rate (CAGR) of about 26.5%.

As for the Chinese market, IDC expects that China's AI investment is expected to reach $26.69 billion in 2026, accounting for about 8.9% of the global share and ranking second in the world as a single country.

The report points out that in the next five years, the hardware market for China's AI market is the largest sub-market, accounting for more than half of the total AI investment scale. IDC predicts that in 2026, China's AI hardware market IT investment scale will exceed $15 billion, close to the size of the U.S. AI hardware market.

IDC said that with the gradual improvement of AI infrastructure construction, hardware growth will gradually slow down, five-year CAGR to remain at about 16.5%. Among them, the server (Server) market as a major component of the hardware market, accounting for more than 80% of the five-year forecast period.

In terms of industry applications, IDC expects that AI-related spending by users in four major end industries - professional services, government, finance and telecom - will continue to lead over the five-year forecast period, with the four together accounting for more than 60% of the total AI market spending in China.