Big Tech firms are spending like never before on artificial intelligence (AI), and the bills just keep getting bigger. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and even Apple released their quarterly spending reports, and the numbers are staggering. The AI spending that has cost lakhs of jobs isn’t easing up anytime soon. In fact, it’s set to surge even higher in 2026, Business Insider reports.
Big Tech’s AI spending spree is getting wilder
Microsoft is leading the race with a jaw-dropping $34.9 billion in capital expenditure this quarter, Business Insider reports. This is a 74 per cent jump from the same period last year, replacing Amazon at the top. Most of that spending went towards AI-related cloud infrastructure, according to CFO Amy Hood.
Almost half the money was spent on GPUs and CPUs. Another $11.1 billion went into data centre leases. Microsoft had initially projected around $30 billion for the quarter but blew past that figure easily.
Amazon spent $34.2 billion in capex in the third quarter, according to Business Insider and expects that number to reach $125 billion next year, a drastic increase from $83 billion in 2024.
CFO Brian Olsavsky said Amazon plans to double its data centre capacity in the next two years. This week, the company opened an $11 billion data centre in Indiana as part of its AI supercluster project, Project Rainier. It’s also investing $5 billion more in new data centres in South Korea.
Then comes Meta, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg eyeing as much as a 24 per cent jump in long-term capex next year. The company spent $19.4 billion last quarter and raised its 2025 spending target to $70–72 billion, an increase from $66–72 billion previously. That’s nearly double what it spent in 2024.
“We’re seeing very high demand for additional compute,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors during the earnings call. Meta now expects total infrastructure costs to hit $116–118 billion next year.
To fund this, Meta has secured $29 billion from investors, including Pacific Investment Management Company and Blue Owl Capital, for a new data centre in Louisiana.
Google pours billions into AI infrastructure
Google’s AI bill was $24 billion in the third quarter. CFO Anat Ashkenazi said the “vast majority” of that spending went directly towards AI. About 60 per cent of the money went into computing hardware, and the rest was spent on networking and infrastructure. Google raised its full-year guidance to $91–93 billion, an increase from $85 billion earlier.
Apple told investors it plans to increase its capex next year, too. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow all hit new record highs this week. Nvidia announced plans to build seven AI supercomputers for the US Department of Energy and revealed $500 billion in chip bookings. It also signed a new partnership with Nokia for AI-powered communications.
