Unhedged Is Big Tech spending too much money?
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Nov 4, 2025 
Join John Foley, Editor of the Financial Times Lex column, as he dives deep into the spending frenzy of big tech companies on AI and data infrastructure. Discover how firms like Meta and Microsoft are navigating massive capital expenditures while balancing operational costs. Foley explores the implications of rising debt levels and the potential shift in market sentiment towards M&A. Plus, learn about the impact of cleaning influencers on product sales and why free public transit might not be the solution it seems!
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The AI CapEx Arms Race
- Big tech CapEx is surging into cloud and AI, with firms spending roughly $620bn next year across 11 companies.
- Most spending is concentrated in Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, each planning roughly $100bn+ CapEx.
Spending Is Data Centres And Opex Too
- Much of the spending builds data centres and pays for capacity to train and run AI models, not just chips.
- Companies also increasingly pay others for external data centre capacity, raising both CapEx and Opex.
Meta's Single-User Strategy Raises Risk
- Meta's model differs: it builds capacity for its own use while peers rent cloud services to others.
- That makes Meta's spending riskier because unused capacity is harder to monetise externally.