More expensive than a moon landing. Spending by tech giants on artificial intelligence will break all-time records in the US

The development of artificial intelligence has entered a phase that can no longer be described only in technological terms. According to an analysis published by The Wall Street Journal, the investments planned by Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet for the year 2026 reach a level comparable to the most ambitious economic and scientific projects in the history of the United States.

Relative to the gross domestic product of the US, the expenses of these companies already exceed the costs of such historical milestones as the “Apollo” space program or the construction of the network of interstate highways – projects that defined the American 20th century.

Hundreds of billions for new infrastructure

Estimates show that in 2026, Meta would spend about $135 billion on artificial intelligence, Amazon about $200 billion, Microsoft $150 billion, and Alphabet around $185 billion. In total, the four companies could invest up to $670 billion in a single year.

These sums represent about 2.1 percent of the United States' GDP—an unprecedented level for concentrated corporate investment in a single technology area. By comparison, the Apollo program, which put man on the moon, consumed a smaller percentage of the American economy in its peak years.

On the scale of US economic history, only the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, with an estimated cost of about 3% of GDP at the time, exceeds these investments.

Data centers, the new strategic infrastructure

Most of the funds are directed towards building and equipping huge data centers capable of supporting the energy and computing demands of artificial intelligence systems. These facilities are practically becoming the critical infrastructure of the new digital economy.

The money comes mostly from advertising, cloud services and subscription revenues, and its size makes this race one of the largest private capital raisings in US history.

Enthusiastic investors and nervous investors

For Meta, analysts anticipate that in 2026 capital expenditures could exceed 50% of the company's revenues for the first time — a threshold that, until recently, would have triggered panic in financial markets. However, record profits in recent quarters have tempered concerns.

Instead, Amazon felt a harsh backlash from investors after announcing a nearly 60 percent increase in capital spending to $200 billion. Following the announcement, the company lost about $124 billion in market capitalization.

Wall Street loses $611 billion in one week amid artificial intelligence fears

US financial markets suffered significant losses last week after the launch of new artificial intelligence tools heightened investor fears about the technology's impact on traditional business models.

According to Bloomberg, a portfolio of 164 stocks in the software, financial services and asset management sectors lost about $611 billion in market value — the steepest such decline since the 2009 financial crisis.

The declines followed an announcement by US start-up Anthropic, which unveiled new AI tools capable of automating a wide range of professional activities, from legal services and financial analysis to economic research. Investors have reacted with massive sell-offs in companies deemed vulnerable to this technological transformation.

Among the worst hit stocks were Expedia Group, Salesforce and London Stock Exchange Group.

Historic losses in the software sector

Shares of Canadian company Thomson Reuters fell 20% in a single week, marking the steepest decline in its history. Morningstar posted its weakest week on the stock market since 2009, while HubSpot, Atlassian and Zscaler each lost more than 16%.

Although the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence has been discussed since ChatGPT's launch in late 2022, investor attention has until recently been focused almost exclusively on the direct beneficiaries of the AI ​​boom — chipmakers, network equipment, energy companies and materials suppliers.

This strategy has proven highly profitable: the index that tracks shares of semiconductor companies has more than tripled since 2022, compared with a 61% advance for the IGV fund and 81% for the S&P 500 index.

Fears of “creative destruction”

Analysts say, however, that the accelerated pace with which companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI or Google are launching products capable of replacing human activities means that the disruptive effects of AI are no longer just theoretical.

Over the past month, Google has caused a stir in the video game industry after releasing a tool that can create complex digital worlds from simple text or graphic commands. In parallel, a work assistant developed by Anthropic, based on its Claude model, contributed to the sharp decline in shares of the software sector.

Disappointments at the level of large companies

Market tensions were amplified by a series of below-expected financial results reported by tech giants. Microsoft lost about $357 billion in market capitalization in a single day after announcing a slowdown in cloud revenue growth, fueling concerns about the high costs of investing in AI.

ServiceNow and SAP were down 10% and 15%, respectively, after posting similar results.

“It was the benchmark companies that let us down. If they don't deliver solid results, it raises the question of how much confidence we can have in the rest of the sector,” said Jackson Ader, software analyst at KeyBanc.

Investors are pulling back, but some are seeing opportunities

The hardest corrections were felt by traditional software companies, already under pressure for over a year. Salesforce has lost nearly half its value since its December 2024 high, and ServiceNow is down more than 50% from its January 2025 peak.

Amid these developments, hedge funds have sharply reduced their exposure to the software sector, which has become the market's best-selling segment since the start of the year.

However, some analysts argue that the market reaction may be overblown. Bloomberg Intelligence data shows that profit growth estimates for software and services companies in the S&P 500 have been revised upwards to 19% for 2026.

“There is an assumption that operating performance will collapse. I am skeptical. It is possible that profits and margins will remain solid, even in a context of transformation,” said Michael Mullaney, director of research at Boston Partners.

Technical indicators also suggest that many stocks in the sector are in “oversold” territory, where investors often anticipate a rebound.

AI and its impact on the global economy

Concerns about artificial intelligence are not limited to financial markets. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, recently warned that AI could affect up to 60% of jobs in developed economies and around 40% globally, through transformation, replacement or elimination.

For investors, the key question remains open: which companies will succeed in adapting and taking advantage of the AI ​​revolution, and which will be left behind.

Beyond numbers: an epochal change

Beyond historical comparisons and market reactions, the scale of these investments points to a structural transformation of the global economy. Artificial intelligence is no longer an experiment or a bet on the future, but a field in which large corporations are betting amounts comparable to those once allocated to wars, space exploration or large infrastructure works.

In this context, warnings about the gradual loss of human control over decisions take on new weight. Not through a revolt of machines, but through a voluntary delegation of power to algorithms, motivated by efficiency and speed, society is entering a stage for which neither legislation nor institutions seem fully prepared.

Artificial intelligence thus becomes not just a dominant technology, but an economic and political force in its own right—with a price commensurate with its ambitions.