This, the corporate mentioned, “permits us to speculate and allocate assets to progress areas for our future. Our plans to spend over $80 billion on infrastructure this fiscal 12 months stays on monitor as we proceed to develop at a report tempo to satisfy buyer demand.”
When requested for his response to the findings, John Annand, infrastructure and operations analysis observe lead at Data-Tech Analysis Group, pointed to a weblog launched final month by Microsoft president Brad Smith, and mentioned he thinks the corporate “is hedging its bets. It reaffirms the $80 billion AI funding steerage in 2025, $40 billion within the US. Why lease when you possibly can construct/purchase your individual?”
Over the previous 4 years, he mentioned, Microsoft “has been leasing extra knowledge facilities than proudly owning. Maybe they’re utilizing the truth that the lessors are delayed on offering amenities or the facility upgrades required to carry that ratio again into stability. The limiting issue for knowledge facilities has all the time been the supply of energy, and this has solely develop into extra true with power-hungry AI workloads.”
The corporate, mentioned Annand, “has made very public statements about proudly owning nuclear energy vegetation to assist tackle this demand. If third-party knowledge middle operators are discovering it robust to supply Microsoft with the facility they want, it could make sense that Microsoft vertically combine its provide chain; so, cancel leases or statements of qualification in favor of investing within the constructing of their very own capability.”
Nevertheless, Gartner analyst Tony Harvey mentioned of the report, “a lot of that is nonetheless hypothesis.” Microsoft, he added, “has not acknowledged as but that they’re lowering their capex spend, and there are reviews that Microsoft have strongly refuted that they’re making modifications to their knowledge middle technique.”
The corporate, he mentioned, “like another hyperscaler, might want to stability their provide and demand forecasts and for the time being it appears like that is what they’re doing. A few of this may have been pushed by the Stargate mission and OpenAI’s involvement with Oracle and Softbank, but it surely additionally appears to be them reallocating capex into completely different areas.”