The $4trn accounting puzzle at the heart of the AI cloud
A beancounter’s look at the hyperscalers’ balance-sheets
IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, billions are so 2022. Three years after ChatGPT ignited the AI boom, the business is all about trillions. The market value of Microsoft, whose Azure cloud has a glistening AI lining, is not far off its recent $4trn record. Alphabet, which is giving Google an AI makeover, has just become a $3trn company. On a good day, Amazon, with a rival cloud, rounds to that. Meta, as much about AI these days as about social media, is now firmly a $2trn firm, plus or minus. Last week Oracle, challenging Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft in the AI cloud, made a dash for $1trn. If some stock sales go to plan, OpenAI, ChatGPT’s maker, and its two rivals, Anthropic and xAI, could together be worth this much, give or take, by the end of the year.
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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “AI’s $4trn accounting puzzle”
From the September 20th 2025 edition
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