Big Tech shares pivot on delivering AI promises and higher profits

Microsoft, arguably the company in the next best position in AI owing to its $13bn investment in ChatGPT owner OpenAI, earned a bit less in the fiscal year ended in June than the period before.

Most of the gains stem from sales of so-called accelerator chips used to train the large-language models that underpin applications like ChatGPT. Pic: AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File

The fate of the S&P 500 is increasingly resting on whether a handful of the biggest technology companies can parlay artificial intelligence investments into even higher profits.

Seven firms, including Microsoft and Nvidia Corp., have driven about three-quarters of the index’s gain this year, in a rally stoked by an investor obsession with AI’s potential to disrupt vast parts of the economy.