By Laurenz Van de Sande — CryptoNewsHub

France / New York — October 31, 2025 | 21:15 CET

The world’s largest technology companies are deepening their financial commitment to artificial intelligence, signaling that the global AI arms race is far from slowing down.

In a week of major earnings reports, Google (Alphabet), Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon each announced higher capital expenditure forecasts — collectively surpassing $380 billion in planned investments for 2025.

The message from Silicon Valley to Wall Street was clear: AI spending is accelerating, not peaking.

A New Era of Capital Expenditure

The announcements highlight a massive infrastructure buildout as tech giants race to meet what they describe as “virtually limitless” demand for AI services.

Amazon raised its 2025 capex target to $125 billion, up from $118 billion. Alphabet increased its spending forecast to between $91 billion and $93 billion, compared with a previous range of $75–$85 billion. Microsoft said its capital expenditure for fiscal 2026 could exceed $94 billion, up from $64.5 billion the previous year. Meta narrowed its guidance to between $70 billion and $72 billion, slightly higher than prior expectations.

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“We believe it to be a massive opportunity with the potential for strong returns on invested capital over the long term,”

— Brian Olsavsky, Amazon CFO

Despite rising costs, tech leaders insist the long-term benefits of AI justify the extraordinary outlays.

Mixed Investor Reactions

Wall Street’s response to the spending spree was uneven.

Amazon’s stock surged after the company reported strong earnings and revenue growth, while Alphabet’s shares climbed 2.5% following its upbeat outlook.

However, Microsoft’s stock fell around 3% as analysts digested its forecast for accelerated spending in fiscal 2026. Meta suffered the steepest decline — an 11% plunge, its biggest drop in three years — despite delivering solid quarterly results.

Oppenheimer analysts downgraded Meta from “buy” to “hold,” calling its AI revenue potential an “unknown opportunity” and comparing its heavy spending on “superintelligence” to its costly metaverse push of 2021–2022.

Meta’s AI Gamble: Déjà Vu?

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains confident. In June, he launched Superintelligence Labs, uniting the company’s AI research teams under one banner.

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“I’m optimistic that this new influx of talent and parallel approach to model development will set us up to deliver on the promise of personal superintelligence for everyone,”

— Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO

Yet, the company’s Reality Labs division continues to burn billions — posting a $4.4 billion quarterly loss on just $470 million in revenue. Analysts warn that Meta’s AI spending could mirror the same long-term uncertainty that plagued its metaverse ambitions.

AI Cloud Wars Intensify

For Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, AI investments are deeply tied to their cloud computing empires.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the largest cloud provider, but its 20% growth to $33 billion in Q3 lagged behind Microsoft Azure’s 40% and Google Cloud’s 34% surge.

Cantor Fitzgerald analysts noted that hyperscalers with “expansive service stacks like Microsoft” are best positioned to benefit from the AI buildout, but they also raised concerns over runaway spending.

“Total capex, including leases, could reach $140 billion this year, up 58% from a year earlier — triple the 2024 level. That’s reflective of strong demand, but there appears no end in sight,”

— Cantor Research Note

OpenAI’s Trillion-Dollar Ambition

While Big Tech is spending hundreds of billions, OpenAI has announced partnerships with Nvidia, Oracle, and Broadcom worth around $1 trillion in AI infrastructure commitments.

This figure dwarfs even the combined capex of the tech giants, underscoring how central AI has become to the future of global computing.

The Bigger Picture

Economists and industry observers remain divided: is this an unprecedented innovation cycle or the start of another tech bubble?

What’s certain is that AI infrastructure — data centers, chips, and cloud networks — has become the new battleground for dominance in the digital economy. As companies pour record sums into artificial intelligence, the race to define its future is only intensifying.

#ArtificialIntelligence #TechStocks #Microsoft #Google #Amazon #Meta #OpenAI #AIInfrastructure #CryptoNewsHub

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