Large technology companies such as Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon have announced in recent days that their spending on artificial intelligence (AI) has reached record levels, yet it is still not enough to meet demand. Meta Platforms, for example, has nearly doubled its capital expenditures this year to $72 billion (approximately CZK 1.656 trillion), an increase from last year. Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said that this spending would be significantly higher in 2026, without specifying exact figures. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive officer, explained that the company is focused on rapidly building infrastructure so that it is prepared for optimistic scenarios and could slow further construction if necessary.
Microsoft is also reporting a capacity shortage. Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said the company has been constrained by a lack of computing power for several quarters and demand continues to grow. Microsoft plans to double its data infrastructure over the next two years. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, the company spent approximately $35 billion (approximately CZK 805 billion) on capital expenditures, exceeding analysts’ expectations by $5 billion (approximately CZK 115 billion). This increase is primarily affecting the Azure cloud service, where most of the impact on revenue is being felt.
Amazon.com is working to expand its cloud capacity as quickly as possible. Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive officer, emphasized that the company is investing aggressively because it sees immediate demand and can quickly monetize these investments. Amazon expects full-year capital expenditures of $125 billion (approximately CZK 2.875 trillion), up from its previous estimate of $118.5 billion (approximately CZK 2.7255 trillion). These figures include the construction of data centers, such as the one in Ashburn, Virginia.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, raised its full-year capital expenditure estimate to $91-93 billion (approximately CZK 2.093-2.139 trillion), up from an earlier estimate of $85 billion (approximately CZK 1.955 trillion). Anat Ashkenazi, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, mentioned that the investments are already generating billions of dollars from AI in a single quarter and that the company uses a rigorous framework to evaluate long-term investments.
Investor reactions and market sentiment
Investors reacted mixedly to these announcements. Meta Platforms shares fell 11% after the market closed, while Microsoft lost nearly 3%. In contrast, Alphabet gained 2.5%, and Amazon jumped more than 10% in after-hours trading following its results. Youssef Squali, chief internet analyst at Truist Securities, noted that companies are afraid of missing the opportunity to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), which would give them an enormous competitive advantage.
David Nicholson of Futurum Group said that the current phase of growth suggests that any potential market bubble still has plenty of room to expand before it bursts. Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital Partners noted that these highly profitable global companies are funding AI from their own resources, which helps offset concerns about rising costs. Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson pointed to rising depreciation, which is putting pressure on margins—Alphabet, for example, reported a significant increase in depreciation in the third quarter, which will also affect profits in the future.
These companies plan to increase spending even further in 2026, despite jointly investing more than $400 billion (approximately CZK 9.2 trillion) this year. Meta, for example, is operating under computing capacity constraints because it is reallocating resources to AI research rather than supporting existing operations such as advertising.
Additional figures at a glance
According to available data from 2024, the combined capital expenditures of Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Oracle reached approximately $241 billion (approximately CZK 5.543 trillion), representing about 0.82% of U.S. GDP that year. This year, such spending is expected to surpass historic investment booms such as the Apollo program or the dot-com era.
Morgan Stanley estimates that from 2025 to 2028, large companies will invest a total of $2.9 trillion, or approximately CZK 66.7 trillion, in AI infrastructure (chips, servers, and data centers). This increase will contribute 0.5% to U.S. GDP growth in both 2024 and 2025. Companies such as Microsoft and Meta lead in absolute terms, while Amazon is struggling to match the cloud growth of smaller competitors.
Alphabet reports that AI has generated billions of dollars in Google Cloud, while its backlog of customer commitments rose to $158 billion (approximately CZK 3.634 trillion), up from $86.8 billion (approximately CZK 1.996 trillion) a year ago. Amazon has a backlog of $200 billion (approximately CZK 4.6 trillion), up from $164 billion (approximately CZK 3.772 trillion) last year. Microsoft generated Intelligent Cloud revenue of $30.9 billion (approximately CZK 710.7 billion), exceeding expectations of $30.2 billion (approximately CZK 694.6 billion).
Challenges and future plans
The companies face capacity constraints—Microsoft expects capacity shortages to persist at least through the first half of next year, affecting both its current business and AI research. Amazon is building new data centers, such as one in Holly Ridge, Louisiana, for Meta to meet demand. Alphabet’s Anat Ashkenazi mentioned that depreciation is increasing and putting pressure on margins, which also applies to Amazon and Meta.
Although investors are asking questions such as “Are we in a bubble?” during conference calls, optimism prevails thanks to immediate monetization. Amazon, for example, is seeing growth in AWS due to AI, which helped its shares reach an all-time high. These investments represent one of the largest investment waves in U.S. history since World War II, with plans for even greater spending in 2026.
Sources: nytimes.com, wsj.com and finance.yahoo.com
