GitHub added 4 million CPU cores, 160 petabytes of storage and 50 Tb/s of networking capacity this year to handle an influx of AI-generated code, as monthly commits climbed from 1.4 billion in April to 7.4 billion in September.
The company, which runs the world's largest code repository, said agentic AI is behind the surge and that it needs to upgrade and rethink its technological infrastructure. Code commits grew sixfold year over year, while merged pull requests jumped fourfold. GitHub recorded 17.9 billion code pushes over the past 12 months, more than all of 2024 and 2025 combined.
By September, over 40% of pull requests were started by an agent, up from 17% in March, and repositories that begin using AI typically see eight times the activity of handcrafted ones. The rise has put disproportionate strain on CI/CD pipelines, which run automated checks on every commit and merge, prompting GitHub to reengineer its backend to try to decouple storage from compute as much as possible. Given how quickly demand is growing, further upgrades are likely soon.
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Monthly commits on GitHub (billions)
billion commits
Source: Tom's Hardware via GitHub technical report
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Analysis
Why This Matters
The scale of GitHub's expansion shows how quickly AI-generated code is becoming a dominant force in software development, with implications for developer workflows and platform costs.
The strain on CI/CD infrastructure could affect the speed and reliability of code deployment for millions of developers who rely on GitHub.
The trend suggests AI agents will continue to reshape how software is written, reviewed and integrated.
Background
GitHub is a code hosting platform owned by Microsoft, widely used by developers for version control and collaboration. The growth in AI-assisted coding tools has increased the volume of code being committed, and this report quantifies the impact on the platform's infrastructure.
What to Watch
Whether GitHub announces further infrastructure investments as AI-driven activity continues to grow.
How the share of agent-started pull requests evolves, and whether it changes code review practices.
Any changes to GitHub's performance, pricing or usage limits for developers as a result of the increased load.
12 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 12 supported.
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SupportedGitHub added 4 million CPU cores and 160 petabytes of storage this year to keep up with the influx of AI-generated code.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “over the course of this year, it added 4 million CPU cores, 160PB of storage, and 50 Tb/s of networking capacity to keep up with the influx of AI-generated code.”
SupportedGitHub also added 50 Tb/s of networking capacity this year.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “over the course of this year, it added 4 million CPU cores, 160PB of storage, and 50 Tb/s of networking capacity”
SupportedMonthly commits rose from 1.4 billion in April to 7.4 billion in September.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “in April, there were already 1.4 billion commits per month — a figure that rose to 2.9 billion in August, and now sits at 7.4 billion for September.”
SupportedGitHub is the world's largest code repository.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “GitHub, the world's largest code repository, says that over the course of this year”
SupportedGitHub says agentic AI is behind the surge in code activity.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “the company says that agentic AI is behind the dizzying rise in the amount of code”
SupportedCode commits grew sixfold year over year.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “Raw repository activity saw a massive year-over-year increase, as per GitHub's technical report. Code commits (adding/removing code) grew sixfold”
SupportedMerged pull requests jumped fourfold.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “while merged pull requests (finalizing a feature or bugfix) jumped 4x.”
SupportedGitHub recorded 17.9 billion code pushes over the past 12 months, more than in all of 2024 and 2025 combined.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “GitHub saw 17.9 billion code pushes in the past 12 months, which is more than all of 2024 and 2025 put together.”
SupportedBy September, over 40% of pull requests were started by an agent, up from 17% in March.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “By last September, over 40% of pull requests were started by an agent, up from 17% in March 2026.”
SupportedRepositories that begin using AI typically see eight times the activity of handcrafted ones.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “repositories that kick off using AI generally see eight times the activity compared to handcrafted operations.”
SupportedThe increased activity puts disproportionate strain on CI/CD pipelines, which run automated checks when code is committed or a pull request is merged.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “All this code activity puts disproportionate strain on CI/CD pipelines. In modern development, whenever someone commits code or merges a pending pull request, many actions are triggered”
SupportedThe surge prompted GitHub to reengineer its backend to try to decouple storage from compute, and further upgrades are likely soon.Latest from Tom's Hardware: “The rise was so intense that the firm even had to reengineer its backend to try to decouple storage from compute as much as possible. Given how quickly demand is rising, GitHub is likely to have to upgrade sooner rather than later.”