It’s the most exciting time of the quarter: when we take a peek under the hood of Big Tech to find out if the AI boom still has legs. Based on the earnings from Meta, Microsoft and Tesla, the answer is yes.
As Hugo Mathers and Brandon How reported for Capital Brief this afternoon, any suggestion of a slowdown in AI spending can be safely put to bed for now. Both Microsoft and Meta spent hugely in 2025 and will be ramping up in 2026, though the market was far more optimistic about Meta’s prospects.
But among today’s earnings, Tesla is probably telling the most interesting story.
Not because its quarter was particularly good. (It really wasn’t, despite beating estimates.) Rather, it's because it demonstrates how thoroughly the priorities of American tech companies are being rewritten around the AI narrative.
On the earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said Tesla is ending production of the Model S and Model X, the vehicles that built the company's luxury EV reputation, to repurpose the Fremont factory floor for its forthcoming humanoid robot, Optimus.
