At the start of this week, companies Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, and Meta each said the word “AI” nearly 50 times on their respective earnings calls, highlighting their ambitious investments in artificial intelligence. The term is becoming more and more ubiquitous as investors search for meaningful opportunities when it comes to AI, whose potential market size is predicted by PwC to be worth $15.7 trillion by 2030.
These tech giants have immense power over the everyday lives of their users, as well as policy makers, regulators, and society at large. AI has a huge role to play when it comes to existing platforms such as search engines, cloud computing, or virtual assistants, but also new ones as well such as self-driven cars or health care. Microsoft and Alphabet, in particular, made massive investments here, with Microsoft investing billions into OpenAI, while Alphabet taking the lead in developing the Transformers architecture.
Microsoft especially proved to be a huge winner with their $52.9 billion in revenue and 7% growth. Google, on the other hand, had 3% revenue growth and is currently having to realize it’s fallen behind in AI despite its decade-long innovations. Meanwhile, Meta has also had impressive numbers while pushing to focus more on efficiency.
Mark Zukerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, used the numbers to talk about their AI efforts and ambitions. They’re now focusing on two main objectives – massive recommendations and ranking to power their products (feeds, Reels, ads, integrity systems) and the new generative foundation models that enable new classes of products and experiences.
All of these developments signal the Industry Capturing looming over the AI landscape, where a handful of individuals and companies now dominate the sector. The decisions made by these companies will have drastic implications for everyone. As Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta expand further into AI, the entire world watches, knowing that the future of AI rests in their hands.
