There is no doubt technology is a large and growing economic sector. However, questions persist as to the precise size and growth trajectory of the global tech market. Historically, technology spend estimates have focused on corporate IT budgets combined with consumer tech spend. While these are useful to an extent, they miss corporate technology spend outside IT budgets – the so-called “grey-market IT.” After all, corporate IT budgets have shown only modest gains of 2-3% per year, while most technology areas are growing much faster. This prompts the question, “where is all this money coming from?”
MGI Research recently assembled a bottom-up estimate of global technology spend that includes spending by corporate IT and grey-market IT, as well as consumers. The results of this study indicate that global technology spend is significantly larger than previously estimated. Not only that, but its growth trajectory remains the envy of every other economic vertical. This reflects how enmeshed technology is in everyday consumer and business life. Further, the pandemic exposed just how little is digitized and how significant the IT industry long-term upside is. Looking at the tech industry through the lens of actual numbers corrects the subjective distortions caused by cycles of extreme hype and anti-hype in the press and capital markets.
MGI Research estimates that global tech spending (this includes consumers, publicly traded organizations, privately held companies, non-for-profit organizations, and government spend) will grow from $8.51 trillion in 2022 to $11.47 trillion in 2026, representing a 5-Year CAGR of 7.75%. Get the report to learn about the headwinds and tailwinds shaping the global tech market over the next five years.
For more information on global technology spend and the tech industry’s total addressable market, read MGI Research 2022-2026 TAM Forecasts in Agile Billing, Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), and Automated Revenue Management (ARM).