# Big tech can fund AI spending before adoption scales Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/big-tech-can-fund-ai-spending-before-adoption-scales/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy. - Speaker: [Dan Ives](https://realalpha.app/people/dan-ives/) · Dan Ives is a tech analyst at Wedbush Securities. · Built a globally recognized technology research franchise, covering software and broader technology markets for over 25 years. - Host: [Steve Eisman](https://realalpha.app/people/steve-eisman/) - Show: The Real Eisman Playbook - Episode: [The AI Revolution: Winners, Losers, & The Future of Tech | The Real Eisman Playbook Episode 27](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/), Sep 29, 2025 - Moment: 22:55 to 27:43 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/big-tech-can-fund-ai-spending-before-adoption-scales/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1375 ## Quote > “you **only have 3% of the enterprises** in the US that are actually going down the AI path today because it's so early.” > — [Dan Ives](https://realalpha.app/people/dan-ives/) at [26:01](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1561) · The Real Eisman Playbook ## Takeaways 1. Big tech is spending about $350 billion on AI infrastructure. 2. The combined companies have more than $1 trillion in cash. 3. Only 3% of U.S. enterprises have started down the AI path. ## About this segment Dan Ives argues today’s AI buildout differs from the dot-com bubble: cash-rich tech giants are funding it, and enterprise adoption is still early. He points to real use cases as evidence the spending has room to grow. From “The AI Revolution: Winners, Losers, & The Future of Tech | The Real Eisman Playbook Episode 27”, Sep 29, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/) ## Transcript Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there. [23:08](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1388) $350 billion big tech CapEx this year. The expectations are that was going to be $280. It's $350. Next year it's going to moderate. Then the bubble is going to burst. I was actually coming to this. Let's talk about that. So you can search engine anything these days in a much more sophisticated way. So you take the top guys. You add up all the CapEx. It's like $300 to $350 billion. But by the way, one thing I say about what's happening right now is, I said this on my weekly wrap a few weeks ago. [23:41](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1421) It was the week when NVIDIA reported. I said, forget about what NVIDIA does. Forget about the chips. Just look at the numbers for one second and tell yourself this. This is a $4 trillion market cap company. It's the biggest market cap company on planet Earth. and it just grew revenue 55% year over year. This is not a 1 billion market cap company that grew revenue 55%. This is the biggest company they were. [24:10](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1450) Think about what would have to happen for that to happen. And that tells you everything. And think about what Oracle just did. Right, and what Oracle just did. Oracle's numbers. It must have been, your mouth must have just like, what? Look, it was like, and even though Oracle is one of our top five names, And then the level of that beat was jaw dropping. And then I'd also say it was the same thing. [24:35](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1475) By the way, they actually didn't. When I first saw the numbers, I thought to myself, typical Oracle, screw up once every like three to four quarters. And then after you read the first line, it was like, oh, my God. But then it was a similar thing with Microsoft on their quarter and Meta in their quarter. See, that's why my whole point is I'm not saying you're not going to go. So just going back to the whole bubble. [24:56](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1496) look as someone that covered tech stocks in the late 90s so i saw like i lived it like covering tech through the bubble burst and everyone's like can't happen again is this a dot com the difference then versus now is like and again people be sure like a cisco chart in 99 to an invidia chart today if you go back late 90s like the business models were flawed they were basically vc run they were upside down business models. [25:25](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1525) What do you mean they were upside business models? Upside down. They were losing money. It was all VC funded. It was a deck saying, we're going to do this. Exactly. Now, big tech spend $350 billion a year, and big tech has won over a trillion dollars in the balance sheet. So first, you're being supported by companies that have more cash than some countries. Two... But wait, just say that again. It's an important statement. [25:49](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1549) But it's an important statement because big tech, $350 billion a year that they're spending, And they have a trillion dollars in the balance sheet when you combine the cash they have. So it speaks to my view, like you are being supported by the biggest companies in the world, by the biggest company, which essentially you could say are almost. more important than even many countries relative to how much cash they have. [26:10](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1570) And then you actually start to think about it and be like, okay, you only have 3% of the enterprises in the US that are actually going down the AI path today because it's so early. Europe, zero. Asia, non-China, zero. Middle East, just starting with the build out in Saudi and UAE. the point is like it just shows where we are in the cycle and then it just to compare with with the bubble the use cases are real i mean in terms of what you see across on the enterprise health care insurance for pharmaceutical the technology speaks to like when jensen the godfather of ai came out with this chip combined with the software and the hyperscalers you've essentially built a machine that's just going to continue to amplify and now it's coming to consumers because guess what autonomous i think 20 of vehicles over the next five seven years [27:11](https://realalpha.app/v/PT6payqqvuk/?t=1631) not going to have a driver to come to that robotics yeah i think one of every 10 to 15 households is going to have a robot but not a traditional robot a humanoid robot that actually is essentially you know very similar to you know what i'd say is almost like a human brain You mentioned something I just wanted to press, like Europe is nowhere.