- Goldman Sachs says surging investment in AI among the S&P 500 companies is diverting funds from stock buybacks, halting their usual yearly growth. Companies spent $550 billion on buybacks in early 2025, but that flatlined in Q2 as AI-driven capital expenditures jumped 24%.
One unexpected side effect of the Magnificent Seven’s race to build massive AI data centers—and source the power needed to run them—is that they are reducing share buybacks to fund these projects, according to Goldman Sachs.
