A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) reveals that a select group of "future arenas" are rapidly reshaping the global economy, with the "AI foundation" alone contributing an astonishing $11 trillion to market capitalization by 2025. The report, titled "The race takes off: In the next big arenas of competition," highlights 18 high-growth industries that have collectively expanded four times faster in market cap and ten times faster in revenue compared to other sectors over the past three years. This significant growth underscores a dramatic shift in global economic value.
The MGI analysis identifies the "AI foundation," comprising semiconductors, cloud services, and AI software, as the leading driver of this transformation. This sector accounted for approximately 60 percent of the $18 trillion in incremental market cap generated by future arenas between 2022 and 2025. Kyle Chan, whose tweet highlighted the report, pointed to the comprehensive findings. The study also notes that revenue in these future arenas climbed 11 percent annually during the same period, significantly outpacing the 1 percent growth in non-arena industries.
A key finding details the emergence of "omniscalers," nine dominant companies that are not only among the world’s largest investors but also actively compete across multiple arenas. These omniscalers collectively generated over $700 billion in operating cash flow and invested more than $800 billion in R&D and capital expenditures in 2025. Their ability to deploy vast capital and leverage existing platforms across diverse sectors, from AI to electrification and hard tech, is accelerating competition and innovation.
The report emphasizes that while US companies lead in market capitalization in 14 of the 18 arenas, Greater China is rapidly gaining ground, particularly in electrification, batteries, and nuclear fission. The significant investment in these areas, especially by omniscalers, suggests that the pace of change and competition in these future arenas will only intensify, demanding strategic adaptation from companies, investors, and policymakers alike.
