Box CEO Levie Says AI Compute Needs Will Be 'Insane' as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft Top 21% of S&P 500

Stripping AI-related stocks out of the US market erases its lead over Europe, with an index of the so-called old economy gaining just 5.5% since Jan. 1 versus roughly 5.6% for Europe's STOXX 600, while the full S&P 500 has gained roughly 13.5% and added roughly $9 trillion in market capitalization. BNP Paribas economists James Egelhof and Andrew Husby wrote to clients that the bloc has probably missed out on the AI investment boom, though they noted the US was outperforming Europe before OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Global AI investments are expected to exceed $1 trillion this year and grow to roughly $1.4 trillion in 2027, per Bank of America research, yet the US and Canada account for roughly 60% of new data center capacity additions in 2026 against Europe's approximately 10% share, per Goldman Sachs. The US hosts roughly three-quarters of global computing capacity while the eurozone hosts only 5%, per ECB data, and AI investment should add roughly 0.1 percentage point to European GDP growth in 2026, per Goldman Sachs. ECB president Christine Lagarde said Europe will pay for this boom whether or not it shares in the growth, while BNP's Egelhof and Husby argued AI has the potential to tear down many barriers constraining EU output growth.

Alibaba Group Holding outlined a global AI cloud expansion for 2026 that includes new AI-focused cloud regions across Europe and early stage data center projects in Spain. The company also announced a partnership with Sands China to deploy embodied AI robots and spatial intelligence systems at a flagship resort. The buildout is part of a broader push to move from merchant-focused tools toward becoming a compute provider, with plans for 20 gigawatts of capacity plus custom chips. The article notes that profit margins have already moved from 14.8% to 7%, and that the heavy AI and cloud spending weighs on EBITDA as Alibaba trades short term earnings for a larger infrastructure role.

Intel expanded its collaboration with Anaconda to distribute Intel optimized AI, ML, and Python tools through the conda ecosystem, and Anaconda reported that Intel tuned packages available via conda have now surpassed 500 million cumulative downloads by developers and data scientists. Separately, ConnX launched a new integration that uses Intel edge computing technology to power real time shared intelligence in transportation and manufacturing settings. Intel is a US semiconductor giant with a reported market value of about $550.1b, designing and manufacturing chips and related computing products that sit underneath everything from data centers to industrial systems. The expanded collaboration aims to keep those tools easier to install and maintain as projects move from laptops to servers, helping keep Intel's CPUs and accelerators in the conversation when engineers decide where to build and optimize new AI workloads. Intel watchers will look for whether Intel and partners start naming specific projects and customers that standardize on Intel optimized conda packages or ConnX MaestroIQ on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 for production use.

Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su said chip demand remains ahead of supply and expects it to stay very high for the next several years, speaking to reporters in Taipei on October 6. Su said AMD has increased supply through 2026 and plans a much bigger jump in 2027, with capacity now planned three to five years ahead. Her Asia trip included meetings with Foxconn and TSMC, followed by talks with memory makers in South Korea, as AI chips depend on large amounts of memory that constrain how many AMD can ship. Stifel raised its AMD target to $700 on October 5, arguing AI buildouts are limited by chip supply. AMD's forward non-GAAP P/E of 83.38x and forward price-to-sales ratio of 20.25x both sit at more than double their 5-year averages, while analysts expect EPS to rise about 82% in 2026, 107% in 2027 and 45% in 2028.

Applied Materials and Intel announced on October 6 that they are expanding their partnership on next-generation AI chipmaking, working together on transistors, the wiring that connects them, and advanced packaging, including Intel's Foveros technology for stacking chips in 3D. Teams will work out of Applied's EPIC Center in Silicon Valley and Intel's research campus in Oregon, with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan saying the goal is to move new technology from the lab into high-volume U.S. production faster. Intel CFO Dave Zinsner has said packaging can reach 40% gross margins, and some deals could be worth billions of dollars a year, though industry reports linking Intel to potential advanced packaging deals with major cloud customers have not been publicly confirmed. Intel trades at a forward non-GAAP P/E of 73.94x, about 20% above its 5-year average, and a forward price-to-sales ratio of 9.37x versus an average of 3.17x, while carrying about $21 billion in net debt. Applied Materials trades at a forward non-GAAP P/E of 41.47x and a forward price-to-sales ratio of 12.29x, and unlike Intel it is net cash positive, with management expecting packaging revenue to grow more than 70% in calendar 2026.