AI Spending Pushes Tech Giants to Top of US Investment Study

Tech companies have become some of the biggest capital investors in the United States, driven by the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence, according to new research shared first with The Hill.

The report, set to be published Wednesday by the think tank Progressive Policy Institute, found that Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft accounted for more than half of the $520 billion in U.S. capital spending last year - $269 billion combined. Amazon led the group with just over $93 billion in estimated domestic expenditures. Oracle also reached the top 10, spending more than $15.7 billion domestically. Financial and non-health insurance companies were excluded from the analysis.

The four tech firms' spending rose 61.1 percent from 2024, a jump analysts attribute to growing demand for compute power and the infrastructure needed to run AI. Other top domestic spenders included Walmart, Verizon Communications, AT&T, Apple, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

Michael Mandel, PPI's chief economist who runs the annual "Investment Heroes" report, told The Hill his team hasn't "seen any great growth out of the companies that are investing in the AI boom."

When PPI began the report in 2012, industrial companies such as those in fiber networks, power grids and retail dominated the top of the lists. Over time, tech firms "just kept rising." Utilities, construction and manufacturing were originally projected to grow productivity by at least 14 percent from 2016 to 2026, but all three fell by at least 4.5 percent from 2014 to 2024, according to the report. The information sector - including Big Tech, internet providers and semiconductor firms - was the only one to grow productivity, by 61.3 percent.

PPI acknowledged the backlash facing AI firms and data center operators but argued the concerns are "manageable." "True, data centers can bring real issues like electricity rates, water use, or noise," the think tank wrote. "Local and state governments have access to a selection of practical tools that minimize impacts and ensure that communities reap the benefits of the investment they host." It added that the buildout of data centers, chips, transmission and connectivity is "positioning the country for growth and strategic strength."

Mandel said the AI boom is "the only game in town really" for boosting productivity and living standards. He hopes AI ambitions can revive sectors like manufacturing by generating jobs and increasing productivity. "We sort of live in this world in which the digital sector have invested a lot and grown much faster, and the physical sectors ... have invested a lot less and grown much more slowly," Mandel said. "Our task here going forward, if we want to meet the changes, we have to sort of use AI to help accelerate growth in manufacturing." He added that if data centers are surrounded by high-tech manufacturing that adds jobs and reduces costs, "it becomes a much more appealing proposition."

Public sentiment around AI and its backers has fallen over the past year amid concerns about data centers, the labor workforce and the technology's potential to empower bad actors. A Gallup poll released in July found public confidence in large technology companies at a record low, dropping from 32 percent in 2020 to 20 percent in 2026. Market analysts have raised concerns this year that major tech firms' AI ambitions are pushing them to take on massive debt in the interim, with bonds issued by hyperscalers surging from $16.7 billion in 2024 to $193 billion so far in 2026, according to data from LSEG.

To conduct the study, PPI's analysts selected the top 200 companies from the Fortune 500 list, removing financial and non-health insurance companies. All ranked companies are based in the U.S.; internationally based companies were excluded due to data comparability issues. Researchers estimated U.S. capital expenditures based on companies' annual 10-K statements and other financial documents.

Source: The Hill