Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are projected to spend nearly $400 billion in 2025

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are projected to spend nearly $400 billion in 2025 on capital expenditures, primarily to build AI infrastructure. Wall Street has largely rewarded this aggressive investment strategy, with Meta and Microsoft seeing strong stock performance due to their AI-driven growth. Amazon continues to invest heavily, including in logistics, but its recent earnings show that profits haven’t kept pace with spending. Google is also scaling up AI investments, while Apple stands out as a laggard, spending far less on AI and facing mounting pressure to catch up. Despite workforce reductions across the industry, demand for AI talent remains high, and investors continue pouring money into AI startups, betting that productivity and profitability gains will follow in the long term.

In 2025, Meta and Amazon have led in stock gains, followed closely by Microsoft, all benefiting from strong momentum in AI, cloud computing, and advertising. Their aggressive capital spending has reinforced their positions in key tech trends. In contrast, Alphabet has underperformed despite solid financials, as investors remain concerned about potential disruptions to its core search business. -Chart from WSJ