Getting artificial intelligence up and running can be expensive.

I'm David Brancatcho.

Big tech companies are making a king's ransom in the summer to fall quarter.

Microsoft, late yesterday, announced a profit in one quarter that's almost equal to what the nation's largest retailer, Walmart made in all of last year.

So in the sometimes perverse logic of markets, Microsoft shares are down 4% in pre-market trading now.

Stocks of other big technology firms are drooping as well.

Why the paradox?

Marketplace's Novosafo explains.

Microsoft reported a quarterly profit of nearly $25 billion, but it's spent nearly $20 billion,

mostly to build out its cloud business and artificial intelligence tools.

Google Parent Alphabet spent $13 billion, and Meta said it's likely to spend as much as $40 billion

this year on new investments, including AI.

All three said their capital spending will continue at a robust pace.

During an earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Meta's expenditures are likely not what investors want to hear, but he said the opportunities are too

great not to invest.

Much of what companies are spending money on is building the giant computing centers they need

to power AI, and among the barriers they are coming up against is limits on how many high-powered chips

they can acquire.

Chip makers, including NVIDIA, have struggled to keep up with demand.

And advanced micro devices this week

said supplies will remain tight.

Limited chip supplies mean elevated costs for tech giants

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