数据中心竞赛中的五大参与者已承诺在未来几年投入超过3万亿美元，显示出对人工智能基础设施的大规模持续投资。
The five largest players in the data center race have committed more than $3 trillion in spending over the coming years, pointing to massive ongoing investment in AI infrastructure.
Alphabet公司、Meta平台公司、微软公司、亚马逊公司和甲骨文公司各自披露了在租赁、建筑、能源及其他设备方面不断膨胀的承诺，它们正争相建设数据中心集群。这既包括短期支出，也包括一些长达数十年的承诺。
Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Oracle Corp. have each disclosed ballooning commitments on leases, buildings, energy and other equipment as they’ve rushed to build fleets of data centers. This is a mix of short-term spending and some pledges that are as long as decades away.
这些承诺中最大的部分来自谷歌，该公司报告了超过1万亿美元的承诺，包括技术设备、能源和租赁。根据该公司的监管文件，这一数字比一年前高出近八倍，其中包括技术设备、能源和租赁方面的协议。
The largest chunk of these commitments comes from Google, which reported more than $1 trillion of commitments, including technical equipment, energy and leases. That figure is nearly eight times higher than it was a year earlier and includes agreements for technical equipment, energy and leases, according to the company’s regulatory filing.
Meta也报告了类似的急剧增长，披露了超过8000亿美元的未来支出。其中略少于一半用于尚未开始的数据中心租赁，将在长达30年的期限内付清。“我们预计将继续积极投资，以支持我们的核心业务和新兴的人工智能计划，”首席财务官苏珊·李在上周与分析师的电话会议上表示。
Meta has reported a similarly sharp ramp-up, disclosing more than $800 billion in future spending. A bit less than half of that is for data center leases that haven’t yet started, and will be paid off over periods as long as 30 years. “We expect to continue investing aggressively to support both our core business and emerging AI initiatives,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said during a call with analysts last week.
今年商业界最大的争论之一是，投入数千亿美元用于人工智能服务器农场是否真的会有回报。Alphabet和Meta等历史上一些最赚钱的企业已出现负自由现金流，理由是需要在变革性的新业务线上进行投资。
One of the biggest debates in business this year has been whether the hundreds of billions being spent on server farms for artificial intelligence work will really pay off. Some of the most profitable businesses in history like Alphabet and Meta have dipped into negative free cash flow, citing the need to invest in a transformative new business line.
并非所有支出都与数据中心严格相关，各家公司披露承诺的方式也略有不同，因此很难直接进行比较。例如，Meta指出其部分计划支出与Reality Labs部门的消费硬件产品有关。Alphabet和亚马逊均提到计划在内容授权方面的支出。此外，还有一些重要的支出类别——例如当前租赁和债务——未被本分析涵盖。
Not all of the spending is strictly tied to data centers, and each company discloses commitments in slightly different ways, making it difficult to compare them directly. For example, Meta notes that some of its planned spending is related to consumer hardware products in the Reality Labs division. Alphabet and Amazon each note planned spending on content licenses. There are also major pools of spending — such as current leases and debt — that aren’t captured by this analysis.
总体而言，未来租赁承诺总额达1.3万亿美元，其他采购承诺达1.9万亿美元。所有数据均来自各公司最新的财务报告，微软除外，该公司最近在截至6月底的年度报告中披露了其采购和建设订单。
In all, the future lease commitments total $1.3 trillion, while other purchase commitments amount to $1.9 trillion. All of the figures come from the company’s most recent financial reports, save for Microsoft, which most recently disclosed its purchase and construction orders as part of its annual report for the end of June.
甲骨文是第一家因AI数据中心投资而出现负自由现金流的大型公司。在本周早些时候的投资者演示中，该公司描绘了2028年恢复自由现金流的路径。部分实现方式是通过供应商融资和客户预付款来降低前期成本。
Oracle was the first major company to dip into negative free cash flow due to its AI data center investments. During an investor presentation earlier this week, it charted a return to free cash flow in 2028. In part, it will achieve this by using vendor financing and customer prepayments to reduce its up-front costs.