Three Major Cloud Providers Invest Heavily in AI Infrastructure and Services
Microsoft, Amazon, and Salesforce are making significant investments into artificial intelligence (AI), with their capital expenditures reflecting long-term commitments to the technology. Microsoft reported $116 billion in capex for fiscal Q2 2027, signaling its focus on building out infrastructure for AI workloads over several years. Amazon’s AWS division saw a massive increase in spending of $54.21 billion during the same period, with much of it directed toward generative AI and cloud computing expansion. This has led to negative free cash flow but reflects confidence in sustained demand through 2028. Salesforce took a different approach as an application software company rather than infrastructure builder. Its capex was $171 million for the quarter, far smaller compared to its peers. However, Salesforce’s AI monetization strategy is showing strong results: Agentforce and Data 360 combined ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion in fiscal Q2 2027, with Agentforce alone growing by over 240% year-over-year. The contrasting strategies highlight how hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon are investing heavily to secure future AI demand through infrastructure development while Salesforce is capitalizing on the application layer of the AI economy.
Topics: AI capital expenditures cloud computing hyperscalers Salesforce