SPRAWL
The Sectors of the Synthetic Economy—Interlinked.
DATA • CONVERSATIONS • SIGNALS • HUMANS • MACHINES
In 1982, Blade Runner gave us the megacity: endless, expanding, and impossible to trace from the street. The AI universe is building the same thing—trillion-dollar capex bets, power grids under siege, legislative battles, and frontier labs. Sprawl maps the entire landscape across seven core sectors.
DATA
3 views in the card above; 122 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
2 posts quoted in this sector’s articles
- Senator Mark Kelly in By the People
- Adam Thierer in By the People
SIGNALS
364 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
- Fortune · 17 September 2026 · "the decline in hires is the primary cau in AI layoffs: the Dossier
- Washington Monthly · 29 May 2026 · "Entry-level roles are becoming mor in AI layoffs: the Dossier
- City AM · 23 June 2025 · "The Big Four are looking at AI very seriousl in AI layoffs: the Dossier
- Stanford Digital Economy Lab in AI layoffs: the Dossier
The rows behind this figure: layoffs attributed to AI, 2026
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Economics
CapEx burn, SEC filings, debt issuance, cloud commitments
DATA
3 views in the card above; 47 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
2 posts quoted in this sector’s articles
- Michael Burry in Follow One Dollar
- Michael Burry in AI: How Long Does a Chip Last?
SIGNALS
112 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
- The companies' SEC filings by accession in Who paid for AI with people
- Amazon's and Microsoft's filings for capital spending in Who paid for AI with people
- The 10-Ks of Micron in Who paid for AI with people
- Oracle's state layoff notices in Who paid for AI with people
The rows behind this figure: capital spending filed for 2025 by the seven cloud companies
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Industry
Lab consolidation, supply chain bottlenecks, hardware allocations
DATA
3 views in the card above; 5 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
2 posts quoted in this sector’s articles
- NVIDIA in The Needle's Eye
- SemiAnalysis in The Needle's Eye
SIGNALS
22 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
- Epoch AI in Who holds the Nvidia chips
- SEC EDGAR company facts in Who holds the Nvidia chips
- SEC EDGAR 10-Q and 10-K commitment facts in Who holds the Nvidia chips
- Nvidia in Who holds the Nvidia chips
MACHINES
the chips sold, by designer
- Nvidia 8.9 million H100-equivalents sold in 2025
- Google 2.7 million H100-equivalents sold in 2025
- Amazon 0.7 million H100-equivalents sold in 2025
- AMD 0.7 million H100-equivalents sold in 2025
The rows behind this figure: AI chips sold in 2025, by chip and quarter (Epoch AI’s estimates)
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Politics
Legislation, export controls, procurement, lobbying spend
DATA
2 views in the card above; 13 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
3 posts quoted in this sector’s articles
- Jan Leike in The Preemption Play
- Adam Thierer in The Preemption Play
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal in The Preemption Play
SIGNALS
66 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
- The state layoff notice lists in The law catches up, slowly
- Connecticut Public Act 26-15 in The law catches up, slowly
- New York's WARN data export in The law catches up, slowly
- Hunton's alert of 18 May 2026 in The law catches up, slowly
The rows behind this figure: export-control rules and proposed rules published in 2026, each document once
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Technology
Frontier releases, open and closed weights, benchmarks
DATA
3 views in the card above; 4 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
24 posts quoted in this sector’s articles
- Anthropic in Where They Land
- Dario Amodei in Where They Land
- Arvind Narayanan in Where They Land
- Dean W. Ball in Where They Land
SIGNALS
24 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
- CISA in The Lock on the List
- Cisco Talos in The Lock on the List
- Cisco Security Advisories: cisco-sa-asaftd-webvpn-z5xP8EUB (CVE-2025-2 in The Lock on the List
- Cisco Systems in The Lock on the List
MACHINES
the newest model releases
- Gemini 4 Carbon · Google DeepMind · 28 October 2026
- MAI-Base-2 · Microsoft · 15 October 2026
- Grok Voice 3.0 · xAI · 14 October 2026
- Muse Wonder · Meta AI · 12 October 2026
The rows behind this figure: notable AI models released in 2026 (Epoch AI’s list)
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Energy
Nuclear PPAs, data-centre megawatts, grid constraints, utility deals
DATA
3 views in the card above; 11 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
1 post quoted in this sector’s articles
- Center for Strategic and International Studies in Who Pays for the Power?
SIGNALS
32 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
- Bureau of Labor Statistics in Right Number, Wrong Blame
- Energy Information Administration in Right Number, Wrong Blame
- Our World in Data in The Cell
- BloombergNEF in The Cell
MACHINES
the largest data-centre sites Epoch AI tracks
- Anthropic-Amazon New Carlisle · Amazon · 1,037 megawatts
- Colossus 2 · SpaceXAI · 946 megawatts
- Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta · Microsoft · 636 megawatts
- OpenAI Stargate Abilene · Oracle · 618 megawatts
The rows behind this figure: the US household price of electricity, by month
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Science
Synthetic data, robotics, material discovery, long-horizon research
DATA
3 views in the card above; 11 more charts inside this sector’s articles
CONVERSATIONS
2 posts quoted in this sector’s articles
- Epoch AI in The Paper Flood
- SemiAnalysis in The Paper Flood
SIGNALS
30 filings, reports and documents cited in this sector’s articles
MACHINES
the newest models on Epoch AI’s capability index
- GPT-6.1 Terra · OpenAI · 26 October 2026
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 · DeepSeek · 17 October 2026
- Muse Spark Open · Meta AI · 15 October 2026
- Muse Wonder · Meta AI · 12 October 2026
The rows behind this figure: mathematics preprints that acknowledge using AI, by month (Epoch AI’s count)
The table is read from the same data file as the chart when this section is opened.
Across the sprawl
Where the sectors collide
A filled square is a pair of sectors that a piece sits across; the number is how many. Choose one to list them.
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