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Axios
Axios
Technology

What AI's spending boom is really buying

United States Microsoft Apple Google Meta

Tech giants' astronomical spending on AI infrastructure comes with a colossal hedge: In a crucial way, it's not really spending on AI at all.

Why it matters: Most of the hundreds of billions of dollars in AI-related capital investment today is going into computing power, hardware and buildings — assets that will retain real value even if AI itself never pays off.

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