Big Tech's $630 billion AI spree now rivals Sweden's economy, unsettling investors: 'We've never invested this much on anything before' | Fortune

"During earnings calls this week, tech firms raised their capital expenditure projections. Google's parent company, Alphabet, said on Wednesday it plans to double capex spending in 2026 to nearly $185 billion. Amazon said Thursday it plans to spend a towering $200 billion in capex, well ahead of Wall Street estimates. Last week, Meta said full-year capex will rise to as much as $135 billion. Those firms' spending, along with Microsoft's growing projections, totals more than a staggering $630 billion."

"The amount companies are spending on AI infrastructure now rivals that of some of the largest economies in the world and is comparable to the annual GDP of countries like Sweden and Israel. Capital expenditure, or capex, is the funding behind big-ticket infrastructure items like data centers, servers, and power systems that fuel the AI buildout race. Those centers-some expected to be the size of a football field, or even four times the size of Central Park in Manhattan"

""But we've also never had a technology this promising before." Data centers in your shopping mall As firms invest in physical data center infrastructure, some experts say the next round of buildouts could reach your town. "I firmly believe that the 'Stranger Things' mall where they battle the creature will be converted to a data center," Brent Thill, an analyst at investment banking firm Jefferies, told Fortune."

Major technology companies plan vastly higher capital expenditures focused on AI compute and related infrastructure, totaling more than $630 billion among leading firms. Alphabet aims to double capex to nearly $185 billion in 2026, Amazon plans about $200 billion, Meta projects up to $135 billion, and Microsoft is also increasing projections. The spending centers on large-scale AI compute: data centers, servers, and power systems that demand huge resources and energy. Some planned facilities could be the size of football fields or larger. Experts describe the investment as unprecedented and predict data center buildouts may appear in unexpected locations.

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