John Whelan: Can Ireland make most of big tech's huge AI spending splurge?

Global investments have seen job cuts but opportunities will emerge for Irish talent

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg. Meta has raising its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to a new range of $125bn to $145bn Picture: AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez

Sun, 03 May, 2026 - 16:05

An expert in Irish and international trade, John Whelan is a former Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association, a role he held for more than a decade and previously served as an export industry adviser to the AIB Bank Group.

The artificial intelligence boom looks unstoppable after Big Tech companies Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta outlined plans for more huge AI spending in their quarterly financial releases last week. Collectively, they will invest up to $665bn (€566bn) on AI this year, almost 75% more than the spend in 2025.

The standout was Google-parent Alphabet, delivering 63% growth in cloud-computing revenue. Despite research and development in AI increasing to $17bn, Alphabet's operating margin still expanded, signalling that it is monetising AI throughout its entire ecosystem products, such as YouTube and Google.