Major tech giants have reaffirmed their multibillion-dollar commitments to artificial intelligence (AI) spending.

Microsoft reported on Oct. 29 a record capital expenditure of nearly $35 billion for its first fiscal quarter, aimed at satisfying the increasing demand for its cloud services.

The tech behemoth, which dedicated more than $88 billion to building AI data centers and cloud computing over the past year, stated that its spending would continue to grow as it constructs “planet-scale” infrastructure.

Alphabet confirmed to shareholders and analysts that it bolstered its capital expenditure plans by $8 billion to $93 billion.

“Looking out to 2026, we expect a significant increase in CapEx,” CFO Anat Ashkenazi told investors on an Oct. 29 earnings call.

Meta suggested in its Oct. 29 earnings call that the company’s AI spending could surpass $100 billion next year to avoid “underinvesting” and remain firmly entrenched in the new technology.

“CapEx dollar growth will be notably larger in 2026 than 2025,” said Meta CFO Susan Li, adding that “total expenses will grow at a significantly faster percentage rate in 2026 than 2025.”

Big Tech’s AI spending spree is showing no signs of slowing down—even as expenses outpace revenues—at a time when Wall Street is engulfed in bubble talk.

“All three companies are making enormous investments in AI infrastructure, which analysts view as a key long-term growth driver,” AI investment analytics platform Reflexivity said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

But when they start generating returns on these investments is a pivotal factor moving forward.

Looking for the ROI

Shares of Meta and Microsoft fell about 12 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Alphabet stock advanced more than 5 percent.

The investment revisions by the tech juggernauts over the past few quarters “has been, frankly, insane,” says John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds.

“The AI investment cycle that still, to me, seems in early innings, I will say the magnitude of revisions to spending expectations that we’ve seen over the last couple of quarters has been, frankly, insane, and I think we’re probably entering a period where the spending is going to continue to grow,” Belton said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

“But surprise versus expectations, I think, compresses a little bit from here.”

It is not only the United States that is witnessing massive AI investments.

“The AI investment landscape is also expanding beyond traditional U.S. tech giants, including Chinese companies and new AI cloud providers,” John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, stated in a report last month.

The New York Stock Exchange in New York City on April 4, 2025. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Since the beginning of the AI boom more than three years ago, companies have been placing significant bets that AI, automation, and robotics will dramatically transform the global economy.

The challenge, however, is that investors could become impatient as they wait for the return on their investments while analysts determine whether the current state of consumer demand justifies the astronomical AI spending among tech giants.

“The problem with AI right now is that normal businesses and people aren’t paying for it—at least, they aren’t paying for it in anything close to the numbers to justify the hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure investment set to take place over the next few years,” Tom Essaye, president and co-founder of Sevens Research Report, said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

This could be the most significant risk to the current AI boom. Whether businesses and consumers pay for AI or use the technology enough so ad revenue covers the investments will be a considerable factor moving forward, Essaye said.

“That gap is important because these AI companies hemorrhage money, and if investors begin to doubt the end return, then the chances they face major difficulty is very real,” he added.

A plethora of research indicates that consumers and small firms have gradually integrated AI into their daily lives.

A recent study revealed that 73 percent of global shoppers are using AI in their digital shopping.

Twenty-one percent of U.S. workers now use AI in their jobs, according to a Pew Research Center survey released on Oct. 6.

A majority of U.S. small businesses regularly use AI, a September Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights survey found.

Can this be enough to justify the estimated $2 trillion global AI spending?

“Although AI adoption rates have been on an upward trend and have increased faster than we initially expected, there are signs of a potential slowdown,” economists at Oxford Economics wrote in a recent report. “There is also a chance the adoption might take a while before translating into meaningful boosts to productivity and earnings.”

While they agree that AI will be integral to bolstering productivity, “the pace and nature of AI adoption will likely be the greatest determinant,” they said.

But Google’s parent is optimistic about the current adoption rate of its suite of AI products.

“Q3 was a strong quarter, and we’re excited with the adoption of our AI products, helped by a rapid pace of innovation and great execution by our teams,” Ashkenazi said.