The four companies are expected to spend more than US$344 billion for the year, with much of it going to the data centres necessary to run AI models

[LONDON] If there’s any lesson to take from the spending plans issued by the world’s largest technology companies over the past two weeks, it’s to never underestimate the fear of missing out.

Microsoft, which set a US$24.2 billion capital spending record last quarter, plans to drop upwards of US$30 billion in the current period. Amazon.com similarly spent US$31.4 billion last quarter, almost double what it dropped a year ago, and is maintaining that level of investment. Google owner Alphabet raised its capital expenditures guidance this year to US$85 billion.

Then there’s Meta Platforms: The social networking giant lifted the low end of its forecast for 2025 capital expenditures and projected that costs will continue to grow at an even faster pace next year. Altogether, the four companies are expected to spend more than US$344 billion for the year, with much of it going to the data centres necessary to run artificial intelligence (AI) models.

“We have basically tripled capex investment in cloud due to AI,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said.

The emphasis from virtually every company executive during this earnings season was on investing as quickly as possible to get ahead. “We need the teams to execute at their very best to get the capacity in place as quickly and effectively as they can,” Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood told analysts in a call on Wednesday.

Susan Li, Meta’s CFO, said the goal of its own spend is to secure the advantage “in developing the best AI models”.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/global/ai-race-has-big-tech-spending-us344-billion-year