Despite persistent inflation, US real GDP is forecast to grow 2.7% in 2025 and US tech spending to grow by 6.1% to reach a staggering $2.7 trillion. Buoyed by Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, tech spending in 2025 is driven by:

  • Software. Software spending in the US will increase by 10.7% in 2025. As cybersecurity risks escalate, and cloud and generative AI (genAI) continue to revolutionize tech offerings, enterprises look to leverage these technologies to drive future growth and innovation. Cloud giants such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft lead the charge, showcasing significant revenue growth from these technologies. Despite this, companies feel the complexity of managing cloud costs — three out of every five organizations saw cloud costs rise in the past year. Cloud revenues are on track to grow faster in 2025 than 2024.
  • Industry dynamics. The media and information sector, alongside finance and insurance, will see faster tech spend growth, largely driven by digital transformation and genAI advancements. Retail and healthcare sectors also leverage technology to innovate and enhance customer and patient experiences. Eighty percent of financial institutions plan to increase technology spend over the next two years, with fraud detection and mitigation, digital banking, and data analytics the the top three technology investments in 2024 and 2025.
  • Hardware. Computer equipment sales will experience a revival with significant growth in US PC shipments, driven by demand for AI-capable devices and the phaseout of Windows 10. Strong PC equipment demand offsets tepid 0.4% growth in communication equipment spend as US telecom companies scale back capital expenditure amid economic pressures.
  • IT services. Spending on IT services shows modest 3.5% growth driven by the momentum of infrastructure-as-a-service offerings. Consulting revenue growth was tepid in 2024; Accenture’s North American revenues saw flat growth in the the first three quarters of 2024, forcing a downgrade to growth guidance.
  • Tech employment trends. Forrester estimates that the 7.1 million US information workers in 2023 will grow 10% by 2030 as the employment landscape within the tech sector evolves. Data science and information security roles will expand rapidly, whereas computer programming jobs will face declines due to the impact of large language models. Dell cut 10% of its workforce to create a more AI-focused business. Intel announced $10 billion in cost reductions with the loss of more than 15% of its workforce and recommits to “delivering AI everywhere” despite losing market share to NVIDIA. Cisco last year announced two rounds of job losses that reduced its workforce by 12% to focus on AI, cloud, and cybersecurity.

As a result, driven by the US, Forrester forecasts that North America will see the fastest regional tech spend growth in 2025. The Forrester report, US Tech Market Forecast, 2024 To 2029, shows that tech spend, excluding staff costs, will exceed $2 trillion for the first time in 2025 to capture 41% of global tech spend. Also keep an eye out for Forrester’s forecasts on European and global tech spend between 2024 and 2029 to place this US tech spend growth into context.