A pedestrian walks a dog in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on April 17, 2025. Photo by Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Members of the global financial elite flying into Dulles Airport for IMF meetings this week touched down in a state that has seen one of America’s biggest construction frenzies.

North Virginia’s “data centre alley” is symbolic of an AI-fuelled tech investment and stock market boom that has helped the U.S. defy grim predictions early this year of a sharp slowdown sparked by Donald Trump ‘s trade war.

In the spring, the IMF was among the institutions grimly warning of recession risks facing the U.S. economy . Now Kristalina Georgieva, the fund’s managing director, is striking a different tone.

“The AI investment boom is bringing incredible

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