America’s biggest tech companies—Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft—are planning to pour more than $320 billion into artificial intelligence (AI) projects by 2025. Last year, these four companies boosted their AI spending by 63%, showing just how serious they are about this technology.
But not everyone is excited. Investors are nervous. They’re asking: What if all this spending doesn’t lead to bigger profits? Money spent on AI could mean less cash for things like buying back company shares or paying dividends to shareholders. Some worry this could hurt other parts of their businesses.
Jim Tierney, a top fund manager at AllianceBernstein, said the hype around big tech’s AI plans is fading. Now, people want proof that these investments will pay off.
Still, the tech companies aren’t slowing down. Leaders at Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft say they’ll keep investing heavily in AI, even as costs rise. In 2024, these firms spent
246 billion on AI projects,up from 151 billion in 2023. By 2025, that number is expected to jump past $320 billion. Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, called this push the start of a “new industrial revolution” powered by AI.
Where’s all the money going? Tech companies are buying huge amounts of data to train AI systems, paying top salaries to hire AI experts, funding research, and meeting government rules for new technology.
But the market isn’t fully convinced. When Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched a new AI model recently, some investors sold off tech stocks, worried about rising competition. Google and Microsoft also lost billions in market value after their cloud-computing divisions reported slower growth.
Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, shrugged off the pressure, saying companies in the AI race are “learning from each other” as they compete. For now, Big Tech is betting big on AI—and hoping the gamble works out.
Related: OpenAI Engages with Officials Over DeepSeek Investigation