The artificial intelligence race is driving one of the largest investment cycles in technology history. Major hyperscalers, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle, are expected to spend about $818 billion in 2026 and $1.12 trillion in 2027 on data centres, chips, networking equipment and other AI infrastructure, according to Jefferies.
The investment boom is putting pressure on balance sheets and cash flows. Aggregate debt for these companies is projected to increase from $226 billion in 2024 to $502 billion in 2026. Their combined free cash flow is expected to fall from $238 billion to a marginal deficit of $2 billion over the same period.
