Microsoft, Meta Face Investor Scrutiny Over AI Spending Binge

Earnings season for a handful of megacap tech firms has morphed into capex season with the AI arms race showing no signs of slowing.

Focus will be on how much the behemoths Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. plan to dish out to keep up with competitors like Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. as they build out infrastructure and software to power artificial intelligence applications.

The answer — estimated at around $70 billion in each company’s current fiscal year — may matter more to investors than actual profits and will go a long way to determining whether blistering rallies in ...