Artificial intelligence is so essential to the three-year bull market in US stocks that updates on spending and progress developing the technology are what investors most want to see when the world’s biggest tech companies report earnings.
Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. kick things off with their results on Wednesday afternoon, with Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. following on Thursday. They represent about 25% of the weight in the S&P 500 Index. Wall Street will be closely parsing outlooks on AI expenditures and examining any updates on when they expect to start seeing returns on those investments.