Global spending on IT devices has reached an astonishing $8.5 trillion over the past decade—exceeding the combined economies of Germany and the UK.
Each year, consumers and businesses invest heavily in desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and printers. While annual spending has fluctuated since 2021, the market has shown steady growth, with projections hitting a record-breaking $810 billion in 2025.
According to Techgaged.com, this decade-long spending spree highlights the world’s increasing dependence on technology and digital infrastructure.
If IT device spending were a country, it would be the third-largest economy in the world
The surging popularity of AI applications, IoT devices, and hybrid work models has fueled the need for high-performance devices, and this trend will only speed up in 2025. According to the new survey, global spending on IT devices hit $735 billion in 2024, or 6% more than the year before that. However, 2025 is set to witness an even bigger growth, with the annual spending surging by 10.3% to a record $810.2 billion. Moreover, this means 2025 will see the second-largest spending increase in a decade, trailing only the COVID-19-driven boom in 2021, when it soared by 15%.
Even the world’s wealthiest billionaires wouldn’t have enough to cover this bill, as $810 billion is more than the combined net worth of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. But this shocking figure is just a fraction of the total amount the world spent on IT devices over the past decade. With a record $810 billion in spending in 2025, the cumulative 10-year figure will hit a jaw-dropping $8.5 trillion.
To put this into perspective, If IT device spending were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest economy, following China and the United States. Also, the ten-year spending of $8.5 trillion outpaces three years’ worth of global defense budgets, and it is enough money to fund NASA for 85 years, with its annual budget being around $100 billion.
The world spends 25% more on IT devices annually than a decade ago
The data also revealed how much annual spending on IT devices has increased over the past ten years. Back in 2014, consumers and companies spent $646 billion on IT devices. The next three years saw similar annual spending before it hit over $700 billion for the first time in 2017. The next major leap came in 2021 when the pandemic fueled a massive surge in tech purchases, reaching over $808 billion that year.
According to the latest forecast, with a projected $810 billion in 2025, the world is now spending 25% or $164 billion more on PCs, tablets, and smartphones per year than a decade ago. For context, that $164 billion increase is more than the entire GDP of a country like Kuwait and close to that of Ukraine. In other words, in just ten years, global IT device spending has grown larger than the entire GDP of a mid-sized economy.
