Bloomberg reported that Howard Marks, co-chair of Oaktree Capital Management, said investors were questioning AI returns while technology companies commit large sums to build computing capacity.
Bloomberg’s account of an interview on Bloomberg TV said Marks viewed recent setbacks as prompting investors to reconsider the sector’s prospects. Bloomberg quoted Marks as saying, “let’s be a little more thoughtful, let’s be a little more skeptical.” The report also said he described AI as a crowded trade and questioned whether the industry’s commercial gains could reward investors adequately.
Separately, company filings show cloud growth alongside heavy investment. Alphabet reported $127.6 billion in revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, up 25% from a year earlier. Google Cloud revenue climbed 103% to $30.7 billion. Alphabet’s $51.4 billion in property and equipment purchases exceeded its $42.3 billion in operating cash flow, leaving free cash flow at a $9.1 billion outflow.
Amazon reported $201.9 billion in net sales for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, up 12%. Amazon Web Services (AWS) sales grew 39% to $46 billion. Free cash flow for the 12 months through Sept. 30, 2026, was a $42.4 billion outflow. Amazon said the decline primarily reflected a $94.8 billion year-over-year increase in property and equipment purchases, mainly for AI. The company maintained its expectation of about $220 billion in cash capital expenditures for 2026.
Marks has raised questions about AI’s investment economics before. In a Dec. 9, 2025, Oaktree memo, he said he was not equipped to judge whether AI was in a bubble and focused on who might capture value and whether the investment would pay. EconoTimes previously covered Marks’ estimate that assessing AI infrastructure returns could take about 10 years.
