US technology giants face investor scrutiny as AI spending rises

US technology companies are no longer being rewarded by the stock market for pouring money into artificial intelligence infrastructure. Instead, investors are asking a question that should have been louder from the start: where’s the return? The spending spree in context The numbers are genuinely staggering. US tech giants, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, are projected to spend a combined $600 billion to $725 billion on AI-related capital expenditures by 2026. For context, that’s up from roughly $150 billion in 2023. In other words, these companies are on track to roughly quadruple their AI infrastructure spending in three years. Goldman Sachs estimates that total tech spending on AI infrastructure could reach $7.6 trillion by 2031. That’s not a typo. $7.6 trillion, which is more than the GDP of every country on Earth except the US and China. Investor patience wears thin A Bank of America survey of fund managers found that a record net 35% believe companies are “overinvesting” in AI. That’s up from 14% just months earlier. Microsoft’s shares fell over 11% following an earnings report that highlighted its aggressive spending trajectory. Amazon dropped more than 8% o...