Major technology firms have already invested $155 billion in AI this year and are poised to pour in several hundred billion more

Major technology corporations have funneled $155 billion into artificial intelligence development so far in 2025, outstripping what the U.S. federal government has allocated for education, workforce training, employment initiatives, and social services during the same fiscal period.

Recent financial disclosures from Silicon Valley’s leading players indicate this spending spree is poised to jump into the hundreds of billions by year’s end. Over the past fortnight, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet—Google’s parent company—each released quarterly reports revealing that their combined year-to-date capital expenditures have already climbed into the tens of billions. In this context, capital expenditure (capex) refers to the funds directed toward acquiring or modernizing tangible assets, which for AI means massive investments in data centers equipped with power-hungry servers, extensive cooling systems that consume large volumes of water, and cutting-edge semiconductor chips. Google noted in its latest earnings call that its capex “primarily reflects investments in servers and data centers to support AI.”

Meta’s cumulative capex through mid-2025 reached $30.7 billion—more than double the $15.2 billion it spent in the same span of 2024. In the most recent quarter alone, Meta allocated $17 billion toward capital projects, again twice its $8.5 billion outlay in that quarter last year. Alphabet disclosed nearly $40 billion in capex for the first two quarters of its current fiscal year, while Amazon reported $55.7 billion for the same period. Microsoft announced plans to invest over $30 billion this quarter to expand the data centers powering its AI offerings; CFO Amy Hood highlighted that this quarter’s spending will be at least 50 percent higher than in the prior year’s comparable period and will surpass the company’s previous quarterly record of $24.2 billion. “We will continue to invest, taking advantage of the massive opportunity ahead,” Hood said.

Looking ahead to the next fiscal year, big tech’s capital outlays are expected to soar even higher. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella disclosed a target of roughly $100 billion in AI-related investment. Meta projects between $66 billion and $72 billion, while Alphabet has raised its projection from $75 billion to $85 billion. Amazon anticipates about $100 billion going into its operations by 2025, with analysts forecasting AWS investments alone could approach $118 billion. Combined, these four companies are on track to spend in excess of $400 billion on capex next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

These multibillion-dollar commitments not only dwarf the European Union’s quarterly defense budget but also continue to climb in response to investor demand. Last quarter, Microsoft, Google, and Meta all informed Wall Street that their total capex would exceed earlier guidance, triggering sharp rallies in their share prices—Microsoft’s market capitalization even vaulted to $4 trillion the day after its earnings release.

Even Apple, traditionally more conservative with its capital, signaled a significant uptick in AI spending for the coming year, whether through internal initiatives or strategic acquisitions. The company’s most recent quarter saw $3.46 billion in capex, up from $2.15 billion a year ago, coinciding with strong earnings driven by a resurgence in iPhone sales and robust performance in China. Nevertheless, Apple remains behind its peers in rolling out AI-driven products. CEO Tim Cook announced a large-scale reassignment of personnel to AI projects and emphasized that embedding AI across all Apple devices and services is central to the company’s strategy—though he declined to disclose precise investment figures, stating, “We’re significantly increasing our investment; I’m not giving specific numbers.”

Meanwhile, smaller firms are striving to keep pace with the big spenders. At the close of earnings week, OpenAI revealed it had secured $8.3 billion toward a planned $40 billion funding round, valuing the ChatGPT creator—launched in 2022—at $300 billion.