The AI Trade Tracker measures U.S. imports of products related to the construction and operation of AI data center infrastructure. It uses a large language model classifier to assign a relevance to AI infrastructure (high, medium, or low) and a functional category to each of the roughly 18,000 10-digit Harmonized System (HS10) commodity codes in U.S. Census Bureau trade data. The indicator reports monthly import values, an index (2023 = 100), and effective tariff rates for AI-related products, non-AI-related products, and seven AI subcategories: Compute Hardware, Electrical Power, Networking/Telecom, Cooling/HVAC, Building Structure, Fire Safety/Security, and Specialty Materials.
For more information about the AI Trade Tracker, visit Trade War Tracker.
Latest update: September 1, 2026
Update notes: Files will be updated monthly, typically the first week of each month.
The purpose of the indicator is to make the trade side of the AI investment boom visible in near-real time. The data help answer questions such as, How fast are imports of AI-related products growing relative to imports of everything else? Which components (chips and servers versus power and cooling equipment) are driving that growth? How are tariffs affecting AI-related products relative to other goods?
AI-related capital goods are a large and growing share of U.S. imports, so they matter for interpreting headline trade and GDP data and for understanding the trade deficit. The indicator also helps separate the AI investment boom from tariff-driven changes in trade, since AI-related products have faced substantially lower effective tariff rates than other goods. Finally, the AI Trade Tracker provides a timely, product-level read on the pace of data center investment, a key driver of business investment and of the outlook for productivity.