Microsoft stock has slumped 12 percent as part of a software industry sell-off, stoking fears of whether hefty investments in artificial intelligence will pay off across the sector. The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant is on track Thursday to finish at its worst day since March 2020 and has seen approximately $400bn in valuation wiped out. Capital expenditures grew by 66 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period the year before, reaching a record $37.5bn for the quarter. Meanwhile, Microsoft predicted Azure growth to stay stable in the period from January to March at 37 percent to 38 percent, after slowing in the last three months of 2025, partially due to AI chip capacity constraints. "[Wall Street] wanted to see less cap-ex spending and faster cloud/AI monetisation and coming out of the gates, it's the opposite. We have said this is a multi-year journey, and Redmond needs to focus on its data center buildout with more customers heading down the AI path. It's a balancing act with 2026 the inflection year for AI and MSFT [Microsoft]," Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note provided to Al Jazeera.

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Chip giant Nvidia beat Wall Street's expectations for revenue and upcoming sales, easing investor concerns about heavy artificial intelligence (AI) spending that have unsettled markets. In its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, the firm said revenue for the three months to October jumped 62% to $57bn, driven by demand for its chips used in AI data centres. Sales from that division rose 66% to more than $51bn. Fourth-quarter sales forecasts in the range of $65bn also topped estimates, sending shares in Nvidia more than 3% higher in after-hours trading. Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, is seen as a bellwether for the AI boom.

US chip giant Nvidia will supply more than 260,000 of its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to South Korea's government, as well as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai. The companies will all deploy the AI chips in factories to make everything from semiconductors and robots to autonomous vehicles and meant that South Korea can now produce intelligence as a new export, chief executive Jensen Huang said. Mr Huang did not disclose the value of the South Korean deals. It caps off a busy week for Nvidia, which on Wednesday became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion and on Thursday saw signs of a thaw in US-China trade relations that may mean it can export more of its chips to China . Speaking at a CEO summit on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Gyeongju, South Korea, Mr Huang added that with the chips, companies would be able to create digital twins with other factories around the world.

Taking the time to make a use case for AI will propel companies further and improve the return on investment in this fast-changing technology. The market is officially three years post ChatGPT and many of the pundit bylines have shifted to using terms like "bubble" to suggest reasons behind generative AI not realizing material returns outside a handful of technology suppliers. In September, the MIT NANDA report made waves because the soundbite every author and influencer picked up on was that 95% of all AI pilots failed to scale or deliver clear and measurable ROI. McKinsey earlier published a similar trend indicating that agentic AI would be the way forward to achieve huge operational benefits for enterprises. At's Technology Council Summit, AI technology leaders recommended CIOs stop worrying about AI's return on investment because measuring gains is difficult and if they were to try, the measurements would be wrong. This places technology leaders in a precarious position-robust tech stacks already sustain their business operations, so what is the upside to introducing new technology?

AI investments are pulling the US economy forward. Despite United States President Donald Trump's tariff and immigration policies roiling businesses, the US economy is relatively stable. Experts say the country can thank the artificial intelligence (AI) industry for that. "AI machines--in quite a literal sense--appear to be saving the US economy right now," George Saravelos of Deutsche Bank wrote to his clients at the end of September. "In the absence of tech-related spending, the US would be close to, or in, recession this year." AI companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure and development, and other US companies are spending billions on AI products.

Google predicted the investment would help to create 8,250 jobs annually at UK companies. Google predicted the investment would help to create 8,250 jobs annually at UK companies. Rachel Reeves says move is a'vote of confidence' in British economy as she prepares to open firm's first UK datacentre Google has said it will invest £5bn in the UK in the next two years to help meet growing demand for artificial intelligence services, in a boost for the government. The investment, which comes as Google opens its new datacentre in Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, is expected to contribute to the creation of thousands of jobs, the US tech company said. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves - who is attempting to drive growth amid pressure over the lacklustre state of the UK economy - said the investment into research and development, capital expenditure and engineering was a "vote of confidence" in the UK economy.

The world's fourth biggest company, Google-owner Alphabet, has announced a new £5bn ($6.8bn) investment in UK artificial intelligence (AI). The money will be used for infrastructure and scientific research over the next two years - the first of several massive US investments being unveiled ahead of US President Donald Trump's state visit. Google's President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat told BBC News in an exclusive interview that there were profound opportunities in the UK for its pioneering work in advanced science. The company will officially open a vast $1bn (£735m) data centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Tuesday. The investment will expand this site and also include funding for London-based DeepMind, run by British Nobel Prize winner Sir Demis Hassabis, which deploys AI to revolutionise advanced scientific research.

Major tech moguls had their claws out for each other on Wednesday, hissing at their rivals over enormous pledges to invest in AI that had been announced by Donald Trump the day before. Trump announced Stargate, a 500bn project to be funded jointly by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, on Tuesday. During the announcement, the president was flanked by the leaders of those companies: Sam Altman, Larry Ellison and Masayoshi Son, respectively. Son is slated to be the chair of the project. Absent from the photo op was a representative from MGX, Abu Dhabi's state AI fund, another principal investor.

Chipmaker Nvidia reported its latest financial results on Wednesday, recording 30.04bn in revenue over the past three months – a 122% jump from the year prior – and showing that artificial intelligence investment mania shows no signs of cooling. Analysts had anticipated about 28.7bn in revenue. Shares slid more than 3% in after-hours trading. "The company continues to benefit from a market paradox: big tech's aggressive AI investment strategies drive massive demand for Nvidia's chips, even as these same companies invest in developing their own silicon," said Jacob Bourne, a technology analyst with Emarketer. Nvidia has told customers that its next-generation AI chips, code-named Blackwell, will be delayed several months from January, though early samples are shipping to a small group of customers now.