April 30, 2024

Big bucks

Hi there,

Here is this week’s Hot or Not.

Hot: AI data centers

Tech giants are making massive investments in AI infrastructure like high-powered data centers. 

Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta spent a combined $32B on capital expenditures in the first quarter, including servers, data centers, and other infrastructure. 

Alphabet’s $12B in spend was up 91% from the same period last year.

And it’s not just big tech thinking about new infrastructure challenges. Mentions of AI and data center tech have spiked on earnings calls broadly.

We’re also watching investments in enabling tech like liquid cooling and renewable energy.

Not: Meta stock price

This big spending is getting some big tech companies into hot water.

Last week, Meta upped its estimate for 2024 expenditure to $40B to support its AI roadmap.

This amounts to 30% of its full-year revenue for 2023, as you can see below. 

However, Meta also projected lower-than-expected revenue for Q2’24.

The combo of light revenue and sky-high AI spending forecasts spooked investors bigly.

Following the announcement, Meta’s stock plummeted 11%.

Want to dive deeper into Meta’s evolving AI ambitions? CB Insights customers can access instant insights into the tech giant’s Q1’24 earnings call here.

Hot: Walmart in fintech

Walmart’s fintech subsidiary One is now offering buy now, pay later at Walmart stores. 

We predicted last year that financial services would be in focus for Walmart as the retailer looks for new revenue streams (much like Amazon). 

See where else Walmart is partnering and investing — and what its activity signals about its future — in this client-only brief.

Not: Digital health unicorns

Digital health unicorn births have become exceedingly rare amid the venture slowdown.

The space didn’t see a single company hit a $1B+ valuation last quarter.

In fact, just 4 digital health companies have entered the unicorn club since 2023 started.

To put this in perspective, on average, we saw 3x this number of births every quarter in 2021.

Dig into the latest trends in digital health in our State of Digital Health Q1’24 Report.

I love you.

Anand 

@asanwal 

P.S. We dug into the AI strategies of the world’s largest companies — and we’re ready to share them with you on May 16. Register here for the live briefing.

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