The rush to build AI data centres has created all sorts of unexpected winners and losers. It’s a good time to sell electrical components or air conditioning, for example. But it’s a bad time to be Mario, the world’s most famous Italian plumber.
Shares in Nintendo, the video games group behind Super Mario, have fallen almost a third this year. Rival Sony is down 20 per cent. Games companies are struggling as rising costs linked to the AI boom force them to price their products like luxury goods rather than mass-market toys.
Nintendo and Sony have both increased the price of their flagship consoles this year. Microsoft raised the cost of its Xbox Series X twice last year. The most expensive version of Sony’s PlayStation 5 now pushes $900, and analysts expect its successor could cost more than $1,000.