Big Tech’s $400B AI Race Sparks Investor Unease As Markets React To Heavy Spending And Unclear Long-Term Returns

Benzinga

Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple plan to pour $400 billion into AI this year, with even higher spending expected in 2026. Executives cited massive demand for computing power and cloud capacity as AI scales rapidly. Market reaction was mixed, with Meta down 11% and Amazon up 10% after hours.

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00:00It's Benzinga bringing Wall Street to Main Street.

00:02Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple are collectively set to invest

00:08$400 billion in artificial intelligence this year, with plans to boost spending even further in

00:142026, according to the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company continues

00:20to face a shortage of computing power as AI demand accelerates, prompting the need for

00:26increased spending. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company is rapidly expanding cloud capacity to

00:32meet strong demand, noting it can immediately monetize new investments. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

00:38defended the company's heavy AI infrastructure investments despite investor pushback,

00:43saying Meta's platforms are running in a compute-starved state. Analysts questioned whether

00:49the spending race toward artificial general intelligence represents innovation or a bubble.

00:53shares reflected mixed reactions on Thursday. Meta fell 11 percent, Microsoft dropped 3 percent,

01:01Alphabet rose 2.5 percent, and Amazon surged 10 percent in after-hours trading.

01:07For all things money, visit Benzinga.com.

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