A.I. Spending Sets a Record, With No End in Sight

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A.I. Spending Sets a Record, With No End in Sight

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta reported more than $130 billion in quarterly capital expenditures on Wednesday as they build A.I. data centers. There’s more to come.

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Amazon’s data center complex in New Carlisle, Ind. The company, along with Google, Microsoft and Meta, has spent billions on capital expenditures, largely data centers.

Credit...

AJ Mast for The New York Times

By

Karen Weise

Reporting from Seattle

April 29, 2026,

4:30 p.m. ET

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For the past two years, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have repeatedly set records for how much they are spending on artificial intelligence.

On Wednesday, the four giants did it again.

In the first three months of the year, the four companies reported in their financial results, they plowed a total of $130.65 billion into capital expenditures, largely spending on data centers that power A.I. That figure — which was another record — was more than three times what the

Manhattan Project

cost to develop nuclear bombs and 71 percent higher than what the tech giants spent in the same quarter a year earlier.

Investors may need to brace for more spending. Meta, for one, raised its spending forecast for the year to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from its previous prediction of $115 billion to $135 billion.

The spending showcased how the biggest tech companies are in the middle of a wildly expensive era of A.I., which many of them see as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become far larger. And as

the frenzy escalates

, it’s increasingly only the planet’s wealthiest companies that have the money to lead this race.

That’s because Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta continue to dominate in core businesses that spew cash, such as

serving ads on YouTube or Instagram

, delivering items in a few hours or tallying cells in Excel. The companies generated a combined $431 billion in sales in the quarter and made $151 billion in profit.

“They can handle it” because of their cash flow, John Blackledge, an analyst with the investment bank TD Cowen, said about the A.I. spending.

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