It all started relatively quietly. In 2019, Microsoft invested one billion dollars in the then little-known startup OpenAI. No one suspected at the time that this deal would spark the biggest investment frenzy in the history of technology. Today, we are talking about sums that exceed the GDP of many countries.
From Billions to Trillions
At the time, Microsoft gained more than just a stake in a promising company. It became the exclusive cloud services provider for OpenAI, while its total investment gradually grew to nearly 14 billion dollars. Much of it came in the form of credits on the Azure platform rather than cash. It was a smart move for both sides: Microsoft booked cloud revenue, while OpenAI covered its largest expense.
But times are changing. Today, OpenAI only offers Microsoft a right of first refusal and is actively seeking additional partners. Relying on a single provider simply does not pay off when your computing requirements are growing every month.
Oracle: From a Boring Database Company to the King of AI Infrastructure
Few expected Oracle to become one of the leading players in this race. And yet, that is exactly what happened. In June 2025, the company disclosed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a 30-billion-dollar contract with a then-unnamed partner, which soon turned out to be OpenAI. This single contract exceeded Oracle's entire cloud revenue for the previous year.
Then came the real shock. In September 2025, Oracle announced a five-year, 300-billion-dollar computing power agreement with OpenAI, set to take effect in 2027. Founder Larry Ellison briefly became the richest person in the world. The figure is so astronomical that OpenAI does not actually have those funds yet. The entire agreement rests on faith in enormous growth at both companies. A bold bet? Without a doubt.
Nvidia: Chips as the Currency of the New Economy
Nvidia earns so much from selling graphics processing units (GPUs) that it can afford to reinvest in its own customers. And it does so in its own way. In September 2025, it bought a 4% stake in rival Intel for 5 billion dollars. A week later, it announced a 100-billion-dollar investment in OpenAI, this time not in cash but directly in GPUs for data centers.
It struck a similar deal with Elon Musk and his company xAI. This creates an interesting cycle: Nvidia supplies the chips, the chips are scarce and expensive, and as a result, Nvidia maintains its dominant position. So far, it is working. But what happens when the momentum stops?
Meta, Stargate, and the Race for Gigawatts
Mark Zuckerberg is not sleeping. Meta plans to spend 600 billion dollars on U.S. infrastructure by 2028. In the first half of 2025 alone, the company spent 30 billion more than it had a year earlier. Some of the money is going toward cloud contracts, including a 10-billion-dollar deal with Google Cloud. But two enormous data centers will consume even more resources.
The Hyperion project in Louisiana, covering more than 900 hectares, is estimated to cost 10 billion dollars and deliver 5 gigawatts of computing power. It will be powered by a local nuclear power plant. The smaller Prometheus center in Ohio will run on natural gas and launch this year.
Then there is Stargate, a project announced directly by Trump two days after his inauguration. The SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle joint venture is set to invest 500 billion dollars in U.S. AI infrastructure. Sam Altman called it the "most important project of this era." Elon Musk questioned the availability of funding from the very beginning. The reality lies somewhere in between: eight data centers are under construction in Abilene, Texas, with completion expected by the end of 2026.
700 Billion Dollars in 2026 Alone: Nervousness Is Growing on Wall Street
The figures in this year's capital expenditure plans are staggering. Amazon intends to spend more than 200 billion dollars this year (up from 131 billion last year), Google plans to spend 175 to 185 billion (up from 91 billion last year), and Meta expects to spend 115 to 135 billion. Altogether, the technology giants plan to invest nearly 700 billion dollars in data centers this year.
Investors are not thrilled. Companies are taking on debt, returns on investment are uncertain, and CFOs across Silicon Valley are gritting their teeth. Technology executives are convinced that this is an existential necessity. Bankers see enormous risk. Time will tell who is right.
And then there is another problem that is not discussed much. The xAI data center in Tennessee has become one of the largest air polluters in the entire county. Experts say its gas turbines violate the Clean Air Act. The race for computing power has an environmental cost, and it will be difficult to ignore.
Nvidia estimates that 3 to 4 trillion dollars will be invested in AI infrastructure by the end of the decade. Whether this bet pays off depends on one thing: whether artificial intelligence truly delivers enough value to justify these astronomical investments.
Sources: cryptorank.io and techcrunch.com
