# PNC Expands In-House AI Capacity While Retaining Hyperscaler Models

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/32922
Published: 2026-10-16T01:13:42.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-16T01:13:42.000Z
Section: Business

> Data-center rebuilds are adding to depreciation expense as the bank deploys GPUs. Management has also identified 171 opportunities tied to $1.4 billion in addressable spend.

The PNC Financial Services Group is adding computing capacity it can operate internally as it expands artificial intelligence use, aiming to run more workloads on its own systems while continuing to use models accessed through hyperscalers. Chairman and CEO William S. Demchak described the effort during the bank's Thursday, Oct. 15, earnings call.

Demchak said PNC needs infrastructure that can support AI at scale “without vendor support, without compute costs coming from third parties.” The bank is building internal capacity to handle more workloads, while its model strategy continues to include frontier models through hyperscalers.

Rebuilding PNC's data centers is adding to depreciation expense, and GPU chips have been placed in those facilities. Demchak said much of the groundwork for AI had been laid in earlier years. The current effort includes applying AI to redesign company processes, connecting the infrastructure buildout to the bank's wider automation push.

PNC continues to use external models alongside its own infrastructure. Executive Vice President and CFO Robert Q. Reilly said at a Sept. 14 conference that the bank uses frontier models through hyperscalers and open-weight models in its data centers. Together, those details describe a mix of internal computing and models accessed through outside providers.

Management previously identified 171 opportunities tied to $1.4 billion in addressable spend and projected 40 points of operating leverage from AI between 2025 and 2030. The $1.4 billion figure represents potential spend tied to the opportunities, not savings already realized. The 40-point figure is a projection rather than a result already delivered by AI.

Demchak said earlier automation in retail and care-center operations produced 30 points of operating leverage between 2022 and 2025. That earlier result is separate from the projected AI contribution. PNC reported $627.816 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2026.