LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - An AI boom has driven stock markets to record highs, big tech firms are piling hundreds of billions of dollars into new tech, while consumers, workers and businesses are grappling with existential questions unleashed by the likes of ChatGPT and Claude.    

Some analysts say Artificial Intelligence will boost productivity and make businesses more profitable. But others warn of a dystopia of AI-fuelled mass unemployment where some sectors no longer exist.

Meanwhile the market frenzy over Elon Musk's SpaceX has reached fever pitch ahead of its IPO expected on Thursday afternoon.

Click here for the Reuters dashboard of key metrics on the AI boom. 

AI TRADE TURBOCHARGES STOCK MARKETS

The AI-driven rally has helped drive equity markets to record highs, offsetting risks created by the Iran war.

AI bellwether Nvidia ( NVDA ) alone has rocketed over 1,300% since the end of 2022. Its quarterly earnings, a gauge of the broader AI narrative, are as closely watched by investors as some economic indicators.

Microsoft ( MSFT ), Google-owner Alphabet and Amazon ( AMZN ) - dubbed "hyperscalers" because of their focus on building AI data centers - are also popular. 

It's not just a U.S. story. 

European tech stocks, which include chip-making machine giant ASML, are at their highest since 2000. South Korea's market, home to chipmaker Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ), is near a record . 

SK Hynix and Micron Tech ( MU ) meanwhile have been floating in and out of the elite  group of companies with a market capitalisation of at least $1 trillion. This group could get bigger with upcoming new listings such as Elon Musk's SpaceX.  

No surprise that the tech stock surge has stoked concerns about a bubble that could drag stocks down sharply if it pops. 

INVESTORS GET PICKY (SOME SCARED)

A divide is emerging between companies that investors reckon will benefit from the megatrend and those whose business models investors suspect could be disrupted, or replaced.    

Software and data analytics firms are recovering after a slide in February as a new AI tool by Anthropic spooked investors. 

GET WITH THE PROGRAMME

How quickly businesses adopt AI is key as this will give some sense of the impact on productivity gains and jobs markets. 

The impact is relatively limited so far.

Still, the U.S. Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey provides a near real-time gauge of corporate uptake. And what happens in the United States could be a guide to what follows in other big developed economies.

As more workers add AI tools to their arsenal and potentially replace the need for human input, there are questions over how this will affect employment.

Companies are already citing AI as a factor leading them to slash jobs. 

INFRASTRUCTURE CAPEX BOOM

A race to build the infrastructure needed to support AI is on. Morgan Stanley estimates big tech will spend $3 trillion between 2025 and 2028 on a global expansion of data centers.  

The massive investment in data center projects is helping to underpin economic growth, especially in the United States.

Yet, data collated by DC Byte for Reuters show projects in several major countries remain at an early stage. Around 68% of the 679 U.S. data center projects it tracks are still not yet being built, for instance. This figure includes all data center projects including those for AI purposes. 

The build-out is increasingly being funded by debt, raising financial stability risk concerns.

MORE POWER NEEDED, NOW

The data center build-out is driving an unprecedented surge in electricity demand globally, running up against power constraints across regions, as projects grapple with ageing grids and limited supply. 

As well as delaying projects and forcing data centers to be more flexible, the surge is raising concern about the environmental impact and potential for higher consumer prices.

Global utilities stocks have jumped roughly 40% since late 2022.