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// capex

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theme-connectedinfrastructure investmentcapexdata centers

US corporate capex to surge 40% by 2027, outpacing Europe threefold

Source: Financial Times (paywall)

American companies are committing vastly more capital to physical infrastructure—data centers, manufacturing facilities, chip plants—than European counterparts. Oxford Economics attributes this directly to competition for AI dominance. The spending gap reflects a structural competitive advantage: the US is building out the physical substrate required to train and deploy AI systems at scale, while Europe remains slower to mobilize comparable resources. Whoever owns the compute infrastructure captures the economic returns from AI deployment.

theme-commercecapexfinancial reportingai infrastructure spending

Tech Giants Hide $3 Trillion in AI Spending From Investors

Source: The Wall Street Journal (paywall)

Alphabet, Meta, and seven other major tech companies are using off-balance-sheet financing—leases, purchase commitments, and vendor deals—to fund AI infrastructure without reporting the full cost to shareholders. These arrangements obscure $3 trillion in obligations against only $600 billion in disclosed capex. The gap distorts how investors evaluate AI investment returns, margin sustainability, and competitive moats. If AI revenue slows, companies remain contractually obligated to pay for infrastructure that no longer generates returns. Current financial reporting standards haven't caught up to how tech companies actually fund capital-intensive infrastructure, creating an asymmetry between what boards see and what public markets can evaluate.