Ai Spending

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Microsoft’s data center project Mount Pleasant, Wis. in late 2025. Joe Timmerman/Wisconsin Watch via Getty Images
AI Infrastructure

Microsoft Slowed AI Spending. Now It’s Playing Catchup

By Ann Davis Vaughan · Apr 13, 2026 8:00am PDT · 1 comment
Microsoft is playing catch-up in the AI power race by grabbing big sites in Texas and West Virginia for data centers fired by natural gas. It wasn’t long ago that the company had a big lead.In the early days of the AI boom, Microsoft’s in-house energy team amassed a 9-gigawatt war chest of grid-powered data center sites that was the envy of the... Microsoft is playing catch-up in the AI power race by grabbing big sites in Texas and West...
A plume of smoke rises from the Zayed Port following a reported Iranian strike in Abu Dhabi on March 1, 2026. Photo by Ryan Lim / AFP via Getty Images.

Iran War Imperils $300 Billion in Gulf AI Spending

By Miles Kruppa · Mar 8, 2026 8:00am PDT
The war in Iran is complicating plans by Gulf nations to spend more than $300 billion on data centers, chips and other AI investments, crimping a potential source of funding for power-hungry tech companies. Countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become big destinations for data centers. Local firms are developing the projects,... The war in Iran is complicating plans by Gulf nations to spend more than $300 billion on data...
Chart by Shane Burke.
Sunday Insights

Google and Microsoft Face Less AI Spending Risk Than Meta, Amazon

By Martin Peers · Nov 2, 2025 8:00am PST · 1 comment
Of all the big tech companies investing in AI, Google and Microsoft are the best positioned to handle the growing costs of the technology, judging from data disclosed this past week in September-quarter earnings. Google and Microsoft generate more cash from their businesses than other big tech companies, including Apple. And they’re devoting a... Of all the big tech companies investing in AI, Google and Microsoft are the best positioned to...
Art via Getty Images
Applied AI

Why Companies Can't Prove Their AI Spending Pays Off

By Laura Bratton · Oct 13, 2026 11:16am PDT
The trillion-dollar question of the AI boom is whether businesses’ spending on the technology pays off. But measuring that return is often uncertain, confusing or incomplete. That’s because it takes time for AI to show a return on investment that can be demonstrated in a company’s income statement, as we’ve written.A new study from the... The trillion-dollar question of the AI boom is whether businesses’ spending on the technology...
Photo by Costfoto/ Getty Images
Exclusive

ByteDance’s First-Half Profit Drops to $20 Billion, Weighed Down by AI Spending

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Sep 15, 2026 5:00am PDT · 1 comment
ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to $20 billion, as the Chinese tech giant ramped up its investments in AI, according to three people with knowledge of the financial results. The company’s revenue for the period rose around 30% year on year to $120 billion, driven partly by robust growth... ByteDance’s net profit in the first half of this year declined by a single-digit percentage to...