Big Tech Rakes In the AI Revenue

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A.M. Edition for April 30. After several years of massive infrastructure spending, four of the biggest names in tech reported sales growth yesterday thanks to the proliferation of AI tools. WSJ deputy tech bureau chief Bradley Olson details how companies are dipping into their cash reserves and announcing layoffs to accommodate massive AI spending, and how investors are responding. Plus, the White House opposes Anthropic’s plan to expand access to its powerful Mythos AI model over security concerns. And can LIV Golf survive after Saudi Arabia pulls funding for the PGA Tour rival? Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	How much of your workday is actually work, and how much is just hunting for information?
0:05.2	That's the problem Amazon Quick was built to solve. Quick is an intelligent workplace assistant
0:09.5	that connects all your systems, your documents, dashboards, Salesforce, Jira, Slack, email,
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0:19.7	update a ticket, send a message right there in
0:21.9	the conversation without switching tools. It's AI that actually works the way you do. Learn more at
0:27.5	aWS.com slash quick. Oil prices jump to a new wartime high on fears of renewed escalation with Iran.
0:39.3	Plus, AI finally starts making money for big tech, but not with how to rethink of their balance sheets.
0:45.3	They had tremendous cash flow, and that's kind of changing.
0:49.3	In order to afford the kind of spending that they're going to have to make,
0:53.3	they're changing the way they operate and they are becoming kind of spending that they're going to have to make, they're changing the way they
0:55.0	operate and they are becoming kind of more indebted and using that to pay for AI infrastructure
1:00.8	and data centers. And they're also cutting staff. And can live golf survive without Saudi funding?
1:07.9	It's Thursday, April 30th. I'm Lou Vargas for the Wall Street Journal,
1:11.6	and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories,
1:16.4	moving your world today. Big tech companies are starting to strike gold with artificial
1:23.5	intelligence. Four of the biggest names in tech, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon,
1:28.5	all reported earnings yesterday showing that sales are growing thanks to the proliferation of AI
1:33.6	tools. That progress, however, is coming at a steep cost with capital expenditures for data
1:38.7	centers and chips soaring. So what are investors making of it all? Bradley Olson is our deputy tech bureau chief and joins
1:46.0	me now from San Francisco. Brad, these companies together are spending more than $650 billion this
1:52.1	year to build out AI infrastructure. That is more than the cost of the Apollo space program, the U.S.
	...

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