Is AI Boom Masking Manufacturing Weakness?

Manufacturing indicators are showing signs of strength—but is AI making the picture look better than it really is?In this episode Mike and Nick look beneath the headline manufacturing numbers and examine the outsized role AI and data center investment is playing in the economy.With billions pouring into AI infrastructure and hyperscale data centers, capital spending is booming in one corner of the market. Outside of AI, however, the picture is considerably softer. So how much of today’s manufacturing momentum is being driven by a concentrated wave of AI investment—and what happens if that spending slows?Mike and Nick discuss the disconnect between AI-related and non-AI capital spending, what current manufacturing indicators are really telling us, and why the unprecedented data center buildout could be obscuring weakness elsewhere in the industrial economy.