Nasdaq faces $2 trillion wipeout: How AI spending is eating into Big Tech investor returns

The biggest US technology companies are generating record amounts of cash, but their growing spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is leaving less money for shareholders. A Reuters analysis of company reports and LSEG data shows that five major tech companies returned a much smaller share of their cash to investors in the first nine months of 2026 than they did a year earlier.

Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle returned just 9.3% of the cash generated by their businesses through dividends and share buybacks during the January-September period. This was down from 27.4% in the same period last year.