{"id":215831,"date":"2026-05-18T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/why-ai-investors-need-data-not-instinct-to-pick-winning-states\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:20:15","slug":"why-ai-investors-need-data-not-instinct-to-pick-winning-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/why-ai-investors-need-data-not-instinct-to-pick-winning-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Why AI Investors Need Data \u2014 Not Instinct \u2014 To Pick Winning States"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/frankahrens\/2026\/05\/18\/why-ai-investors-need-data---not-instinct---to-pick-winning-states\/\">Why AI Investors Need Data \u2014 Not Instinct \u2014 To Pick Winning States<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/frankahrens\/2026\/05\/18\/why-ai-investors-need-data---not-instinct---to-pick-winning-states\/\">https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/frankahrens\/2026\/05\/18\/why-ai-investors-need-data&#8212;not-instinct&#8212;to-pick-winning-states\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-18 15:05:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.forbes.com\">www.forbes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>AI Investment Dominance<\/strong>: U.S. states led in AI venture capital investments in 2025, capturing 75% of the global total ($258 billion out of $427 billion).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>High-Value Investments<\/strong>: AI infrastructure investments, especially from Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, are predicted to reach about $700 billion in 2026, focusing on large-scale data center and related infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Potential Misallocation Concerns<\/strong>: Despite large investments, much capital deployment lacks precision, potentially leading to underperforming data centers, evidenced by Oracle&#8217;s significant stock drop.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Investment Categories<\/strong>: AI investments can be categorized into Physical AI (infrastructure like data centers) and Knowledge AI (human capital, R&amp;D, university ecosystems, etc.).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>State-level Analysis Importance<\/strong>: Detailed analysis of state-specific factors like energy costs, permitting speed, workforce availability, R&amp;D tax credits, and quality of life are crucial for choosing optimal investment locations.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Multi-variable Ranking System<\/strong>: Comprehensive indices like BGR Analytics\u2019 AI investment index evaluate states across numerous criteria to provide a holistic view of investment opportunities, highlighting Texas, Utah, and Florida as top contenders.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Need for Data-Driven Decisions<\/strong>: With growing investments, decisions based on a broad, multi-variable dataset rather than a single factor or state pitch are deemed the most responsible approach to mitigate investment risks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why AI Investors Need Data \u2014 Not Instinct \u2014 To Pick Winning States https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/frankahrens\/2026\/05\/18\/why-ai-investors-need-data&#8212;not-instinct&#8212;to-pick-winning-states\/ Publish&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imageio.forbes.com\/specials-images\/imageserve\/6a075733006d2e536e7597aa\/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&height=900&width=1600&fit=bounds","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215835,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215831\/revisions\/215835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}