Breaking Down (分析する）the Tech Giants’ AI Spending Surge（急上昇）
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are placing ever-bigger bets（これまで以上に大きな賭けをする）on the artificial intelligence boom. Execs（幹部）say they are just getting started.
Note: Reflects purchases of property and equipment（固定資産）. Data are for calendar quarters.
Source: the companies
固定資産の購入 四半期 出所：各社 （👩1メモリは50億ドルです。）
Big technology companies deepened（深める）their commitments （取り組み）to artificial-intelligence efforts in the latest quarter （最新四半期）, pouring billions of dollars into capital-spending （資本支出）projects and telling investors more is on the way（進行中）.
In earnings statements （収益発表）over the past two weeks, Amazon.com, Microsoft （MSFT -2.77%▼）, Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet （GOOGL -2.66%▼） each reported jumps in purchases of property and equipment, a measure of capital spending. For all but Meta （META -3.72%▼）, the latest quarterly figure was the highest in years.
The companies don’t disclose （明らかにする）the share of outlays (支出）going toward AI-related initiatives, but executives tied the spending surge to investments in infrastructure required for developing the technology, such as data centers, servers and real estate. On calls with analysts, they also said the spending is expected to pay off （回収する）over a number of years, and that the current risk is in investing too little in AI, rather than too much.
“Capex （資産計上支出）in the second quarter was...driven overwhelmingly by investment in our technical infrastructure, with the largestcomponent （部分）for servers, followed by data centers.”
“What we learned even from the cloud transition（クラウドへの移行）...was similar in the sense it was both a knowledge-intensive （知識集約）and a capital-intensive （資本集約）transition.”
“Cloud and AI-related spend represents （象徴している）nearly all of total capital expenditures. Within that, roughly half is for infrastructure needs...that will support monetization （収益化） over the next 15 years and beyond.”
“While we're investing a significant amount in the AI space（分野） and in infrastructure, we would like to have more capacity than we already have today.”
“We expect capital investments to be higher in the second half of the year...to support the growing need for AWS（アマゾン・ウェブ・サービス） infrastructure as we continue to see strong demand in both generative AI and our non-generative AI workloads(作業負荷）.”
👩 AWSとは、Amazon Web Serviceの略で、IT関連の、ストレージや、データベース、管理ツール、分析など、様々なサービスを包括的に表したものです。
This isn’t the first time Big Tech has ramped up （増加させる）spending in an effort to get ahead. Amazon （AMZN -4.15%▼）invested heavily in its delivery network to meet demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, though the company has recently shifted its spending focus from retail warehouses（倉庫） to data-center infrastructure.
Some companies said their capital spending was higher when you add expenses beyond the purchases of property and equipment. For example, Microsoft said that, including finance leases, its capital expenditures totaled $19 billion in its most recently completed quarter.
While the AI frenzy （熱狂）has helped send market values soaring for some of the largest players in the space, the stocks have turned lower recently following the large gains.
ムラゴン ホーム
