By Asa Fitch

The spigot of money flowing into artificial intelligence is still very much on, despite the uncertainty around tariffs and the economy.

In his annual shareholder letter Thursday, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy said that he believed AI was a "once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know," and that customers, shareholders and the business "will be well-served by our investing aggressively now."

That followed a keynote speech at a company conference from Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet on Wednesday in which he reiterated a plan to spend about $75 billion on AI this fiscal year.

That is unsurprising. Tariffs have muddied the future of the global economy and remain a wildcard despite President Trump's temporary backing-down Wednesday. But tech companies would gain little now by declaring an intention to pare back.

Only a significant economic slowdown caused by trade disruptions would truly force them to reconsider. In that kind of environment, they would have to take a hard look at all of their spending, and AI is one area where the outlays have largely failed to produce an immediate financial return.

Such a slowdown still appears quite possible, even after Trump's temporary reprieve on his most sweeping tariffs. For now, though, tech companies can act like it's the AI boom as usual.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 10, 2025 13:19 ET (17:19 GMT)

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