AI spending splurge targets future tech edge

The unstoppable run of artificial intelligence – especially since OpenAI’s launch of its hugely successful chatbot, ChatGPT – is bringing about upheavals in the tech world and markets, while becoming a driving force across the global economy.
Three months ago, Wall Street punished the world’s largest technology firms for spending enormous amounts to develop AI, only to deliver results that failed to justify the costs.
Silicon Valley’s response last quarter? More of the same.
The capital expenditures of the four largest Internet and software companies — Amazon.com, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet — are set to total well over $200bn this year, according to a Bloomberg report.
Executives from each company have also warned investors that their splurge will continue next year, or even ramp up.
The spree underscores the extreme costs and resources consumed from the worldwide boom in AI ignited by the arrival of ChatGPT.
Tech giants are racing to secure the scarce high-end chips and build the sprawling data centres the technology demands. They’re each trying to convince Wall Street that these huge investments will make their future businesses more profitable than the current ones selling digital ads, goods and software.
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, has called AI a “really unusually large, maybe once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity,” evidenced by his company’s projection for a record $75bn in spending for 2024.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to ramp up investing in AI language models and other futuristic projects he now frames as core to his company’s future. Meta’s capital spending may climb as high as $40bn this year.
Meanwhile, Alphabet’s capex budget came in higher than Wall Street expectations, and its Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi projected “substantial” increases in 2025.
Apple has also vowed to invest in AI, introducing a suite of services, like a more capable Siri, called Apple Intelligence.
But the latest financial results for the tech giants came as a mixed bag.
While Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon.com and Meta all topped analyst expectations for sales and profits, the results weren’t strong enough to justify their lofty multiples relative to the broader market.
With few reasons to bid up the group, technology investors hit the sell button, resulting in a 1.8% drop in the Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Index.
The trouble is next year’s profit outlook remains murky with the tech giants continuing to spend heavily on infrastructure to support more AI computing power. But when it comes longer-term AI preparedness, here is a study in contrast.
Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s biggest company has become a stark example of how quickly fortunes can turn in an industry where the spoils go to those who maintain a technological edge.
As concerns mount that the company is losing out to smaller rival SK Hynix in AI memory and failing to gain on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in outsourced chipmaking, Samsung shares have tumbled 32% (as of October 30) from this year’s peak on July 9.
The company has lost $122bn of market value in that span, more than any other chipmaker worldwide.
Samsung has promised an overhaul to regain competitiveness.
Google parent Alphabet is showing an expensive foray into AI is starting to pay off, delivering better-than-expected sales for its cloud-computing business and driving more usage of its flagship search engine.
Its revenue, excluding partner payouts, jumped 16% to $74.6bn from a year ago, surpassing analysts’ estimates.
Nevertheless, the rampant euphoria over AI has again problematised the good-vs-bad tech debate.
And AI is the subject of regulatory reviews and consideration worldwide with companies and governmental bodies in the process of negotiating how to mitigate the potential harms without stifling innovation.