Markets Shift AI Focus to US$750 Billion Capex Returns as Nasdaq-100 Earnings Rise 45%
Updated
Updated · moomoo.com · Aug 18
Markets Shift AI Focus to US$750 Billion Capex Returns as Nasdaq-100 Earnings Rise 45%
1 articles · Updated · moomoo.com · Aug 18
Summary
At the Moomoo-Nasdaq event, speakers said the AI trade has moved beyond proving demand to proving profits, free cash flow and return on investment can justify surging infrastructure spending.
US$750 billion in projected 2026 capex by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle underscored that concern, with investors now asking who ultimately pays and whether accounting earnings will translate into durable cash generation.
45% first-quarter Nasdaq-100 earnings growth showed AI build-out is still producing real revenue and profit across chips, memory, networking, power and construction, even as capital rotates toward supply-chain bottlenecks rather than uniformly into megacaps.
20.3 million barrels a day moving through the Strait of Hormuz framed the macro risk: any prolonged disruption could keep inflation and rates higher, raising the discount rate on AI valuations despite a softer underlying US economy.
The panel's broader takeaway was that the next underpriced opportunity may be the AI application layer, where productivity gains in sectors such as banking, mining and logistics would signal value shifting from infrastructure builders to end users.