Here are five key things to watch:<\/p>\n
1. Capital expenditure \u2014 aka big tech\u2019s big spending spree
Spending on AI infrastructure by Silicon Valley heavyweights is unprecedented and shows no sign of slowing. Together, the big companies are expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars this year, directed at the cloud, data centres and chips. So far this year Alphabet has raised its full-year capital expenditure forecast to about $85 billion, and Amazon to over $100 billion. Even though Meta does not have a cloud business, it is expected to spend up to $72 billion, showing the scale of its AI business. <\/p>\n
![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/81cbba1a-5c58-48a3-a150-ffc9dfb94616.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Apple Vision Pro is demonstrated at its Regent Street store, but it\u2019s the company\u2019s iPhone 17 that has got consumers\u2019 pulses racing<\/p>\n
YUI MOK\/PA WIRE<\/p>\n
These numbers will be closely watched for any changes. The companies argue that bigger infrastructure now could mean bigger profits later. Sceptics worry about whether the investment will pay off, especially as companies take on debt to fund this extraordinary expansion, and say it raises the spectre of the dotcom boom and bust era<\/a>. <\/p>\n 2. Revenue: the rush for AI returns Forecasts point to the overall revenue numbers rising at a clip, but investors will want to know how much of this is related to AI. <\/p>\n Advertising figures are key at Meta, which is expected to deliver revenue growth of 22 per cent to $49 billion, as people spend more time on Instagram and on its increasingly popular TikTok-like, Reels feature<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertising spending at Alphabet<\/a> has been resilient, although there are concerns about this being eroded by AI-driven answers it is generating to its own search results, not to mention a drift of users towards other rival chatbots or \u201canswer engines\u201d. Revenue growth of 13 per cent is expected, or $100 billion.<\/p>\n Amazon should see a 12 per cent rise in sales to $177 billion while Microsoft is forecast to report revenue growth of 15 per cent to $75 billion. <\/p>\n 3. The cloud: the fight to control the world\u2019s data Internet services were affected by issues at Amazon Web Services<\/p>\n ANUSHREE FADNAVIS\/REUTERS<\/p>\n Any commentary on future cloud demand that can justify their enormous valuations will be significant. Analysts also want to see if Amazon, for example, will comment further on its web outage, when an error in one of its US data centres knocked out a chunk of the world\u2019s internet<\/a> for a day. <\/p>\n 4. Hardware: the gadget arms race
We may get some answers to these key questions: do the returns from AI sales justify all this investment? Is AI being widely adopted? And is it delivering real value to customers? A recent study from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) found a 95 per cent failure rate for AI projects. <\/p>\n
Microsoft and Amazon, lagged by Google, are the world\u2019s dominant cloud providers and enterprise spend here for these behemoths are ones to watch. So far, the demand for cloud resources continues to outstrip supply. Forecasts suggest Microsoft\u2019s Azure could see about 38 per cent growth, Google Cloud about 30 per cent and Amazon\u2019s Web Services about 18 per cent. <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/097823e4-1a50-4214-bfdb-b43b7f15a69b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Meta has continued its foray into wearable technology with the launch of its AI-powered Ray-Ban Display glasses<\/a> and analysts will be watching for an update on sales. <\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/4246a396-c635-4677-bd54-3c5ed55efb0e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n