The US’s largest companies are increasing their spending on artificial intelligence (AI), with some firms committing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the technology in the coming year. According to recent financial disclosures, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet (Google) have spent tens of billions of dollars so far this year alone, with their combined spending expected to exceed $400 billion next year.
These companies are investing heavily in data centers, which require large amounts of power, water, and expensive semiconductor chips. Google’s capital expenditure, a measure of the money spent on acquiring or upgrading tangible assets, has already reached $30.7 billion for the first two quarters of 2025, more than double its spending at the same time last year.
Other major players are also following suit, with Microsoft planning to spend over $100 billion on AI next fiscal year and Alphabet committing to spend $85 billion. Amazon estimates its 2025 expenditure will be around $100 billion, while Meta plans to spend between $66 billion and $72 billion.
While these massive investments have been met with enthusiasm from investors, some analysts have noted that the tech giants are still lagging behind in terms of development and deployment of AI products. Apple, for example, is seen as a laggard in this area, despite reporting strong earnings and plans to boost its spending on AI.
The spending frenzy has also attracted smaller players seeking to capitalize on the gold rush. OpenAI, which developed the popular ChatGPT chatbot, announced it had raised $8.3 billion in funding last week, valuing the startup at $300 billion.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/02/big-tech-ai-spending