Barclays AI Survey: Institutions Use AI Daily as Andreessen Flags Energy, Cooling Limits

A Barclays AI survey found institutional investors have moved AI from testing into daily research and risk work, with humans still making final decisions. According to BeInCrypto, the poll of 410 fixed-income investors across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia showed research leads adoption, with 52% of long-only managers and asset owners using AI mainly for research and 44% of hedge funds using it to process market data. Hedge funds were the heaviest users, with 72% using AI daily versus 49% of long-only managers and 38% of asset owners. Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz said AI’s scale will be constrained by power and cooling, citing IEA expectations that data center electricity demand will more than double by 2030 to about 945 terawatt hours. BeInCrypto said hyperscalers Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta have combined $725 billion in 2026 capital guidance, up 77% on this year.