BlockBeats News, August 7th, Goldman Sachs estimates that the combined capital expenditure of major cloud providers and Oracle this year may reach nearly $800 billion, indicating that AI infrastructure construction is still in a high-intensity investment phase. For the market, this means that the demand for data centers, AI servers, GPUs, storage, network equipment, and power infrastructure will continue to be a significant source of profit growth for tech stocks.

This assessment also echoes the performance of this earnings season. LSEG IBES data shows that with over three-quarters of S&P 500 companies having reported earnings, second-quarter adjusted earnings are expected to grow by 31.1% year-over-year, potentially achieving the strongest growth since 2021. The technology sector is particularly outstanding, with earnings expected to grow by about 72% year-over-year. This explains why the U.S. stock market, after experiencing volatility in the AI chain in July, has been able to approach record highs again.

Recent market trends show that the market has not completely abandoned AI trading. The S&P 500 reached new highs this week, and the Nasdaq also benefited from the rebound of large-cap tech stocks and the semiconductor sector. However, investors' demands for the AI story are increasing. Even though storage stocks such as SanDisk and Western Digital have delivered strong performance, they have still fallen as their guidance failed to meet high expectations, indicating that funds are beginning to more rigorously scrutinize earnings realization timing.

Goldman Sachs' logic is that as long as large tech companies continue to increase AI capital expenditures, the related supply chain will still receive orders and profit support. The cloud providers' spending will translate into chip, storage, server, and data center construction needs, further cascading into detailed segments such as power, cooling, and optical communication.

However, this theme also faces higher hurdles. U.S. bond yields, geopolitical risks, and high valuations may still suppress risk appetite, and the larger the AI capital expenditure, the more the market will question the return on investment. In other words, AI is still supporting second-quarter earnings, but whether stock prices can continue to rise next will depend more on whether companies can prove that these massive investments will eventually translate into revenue and cash flow.