Nation

Nation is a data page on the AI desk of Glassbox Auditing. Whether AI shows up in the U.S. economy: investment in computers and software, its share of GDP growth, labor productivity and the U.S. lead over China, against history back to 1969. Productivity is what lets wages and profits rise without pushing up prices.

Last updated: 29 Sep 2026.

What is the latest reading?

Computers and software's contribution to real GDP growth, quarter by quarter: 0.75 as of 1 Jul 2026, +0.5 pts since Oct 2011. Source: FRED (BEA).

What is on this page today?

Computers and software added 0.75 points a year to U.S. GDP growth (four quarters to Q3 2026), 0.63 a year earlier — 10-year average 0.33 (BEA, 29 Sep 2026)
Investment in computers and software grew 20.8% a year (four quarters to Q3 2026), 17.8% a year earlier — 10-year average 10.0% (BEA, 29 Sep 2026)
U.S. labor productivity grew 2.1% over the four quarters to Q3 2026, 2.7% a year earlier — 10-year average 2.1% (BLS, 29 Sep 2026)
Largest AI training run on record: GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI), 9.4e26 FLOP — 1.9 times the record a year earlier · the record doubles every 13.2 months · released 3 Sep 2026 (Epoch AI notable models, 2 Sep 2026)

Where does the data come from?

Items on this page come from BEA; BLS; Epoch AI notable models. Each item links to its own source. All sources, how items are checked.

What does this page lead to?

Prices & Inflation (Macro): Faster productivity growth lowers labor cost per unit of output, which tends to ease price pressure. (moves the other way; years; economy scale) Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Labor Market (Macro): Productivity growth lets output rise without more hours worked; whether that lifts wages or slows hiring depends on demand, and BLS reads both. (either way, depending on the cause; years; economy scale) Source: FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
Debt & Interest (Macro): CBO's projections show faster productivity growth raising tax revenue and narrowing deficits, and slower growth widening them. (moves the other way; years; economy scale) Source: Congressional Budget Office (budget categories).
AI Supply Chain (AI): Investment in computers and software in GDP is, on the other side, the sales of the chip, server and software companies in the supply chain. (moves the same way; quarters; sector scale) Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA).
Economies & Debt (World Powers): U.S. investment and productivity growth feed the IMF's U.S. growth forecasts, which the Economies page sets beside allies and rivals. (moves the same way; years; global scale) Source: IMF World Economic Outlook / DataMapper.

What feeds this page?

Progress Level (AI): Capability gains reach the national accounts through investment in computers and software and, later, productivity; the Nation page reads whether they have. (moves the same way; years; economy scale) Source: FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
AI Companies (AI): Developers' and their cloud partners' purchases of chips, servers and software count as business investment in GDP, the tech investment the Nation page tracks. (moves the same way; quarters; economy scale) Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA).
AI Supply Chain (AI): Spending on chips, servers and software counts as business investment in GDP, so the build-out shows in the tech investment and growth contribution on the Nation page. (moves the same way; quarters; economy scale) Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA).
AI Models (AI): Frontier training runs and the data centers behind them are investment in computers, software and structures, the spending the Nation page reads in GDP. (moves the same way; years; economy scale) Source: Epoch AI notable models catalogue (CC BY 4.0).