Stimulated by DeepSeek, global tech giants' AI spending this year may reach USD 370 billion, exceeding USD 520 billion by 2032!

The rise of Chinese company DeepSeek is reshaping the global AI investment landscape, forcing American tech companies to reassess their AI strategies. Driven by DeepSeek and OpenAI's new reasoning models, tech giants are expected to increase annual AI investments to $525 billion by 2032, with investment focus shifting from AI model training to reasoning capabilities.

On March 17, Bloomberg reported that global tech giants are preparing to significantly increase artificial intelligence investments. By 2025, large-scale tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, are expected to invest $371 billion in AI data centers and computing resources, a 44% increase from the previous year. By 2032, this figure is projected to rise to $525 billion, with growth rates far exceeding Bloomberg Intelligence's expectations prior to DeepSeek's rise.

The emergence of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has had a strong impact on the American tech industry, as the company claims to have developed competitive models at costs far lower than those of leading U.S. competitors. This has raised questions within the American tech industry regarding its heavy investments in AI development strategies, with some leading AI companies now beginning to embrace efficient AI systems that can operate on fewer chips.

Bloomberg analyst Mandeep Singh noted in the report:

“The capital expenditure growth for AI training may be far lower than our previous expectations. The significant attention DeepSeek has garnered may drive tech companies to increase investments in reasoning capabilities, making it the fastest-growing area in the generative AI market.”

The shift in investment focus is particularly evident. While spending related to training is expected to account for over 40% of large-scale companies' AI budgets this year, that proportion is projected to drop to just 14% by 2032. In contrast, reasoning-driven investments could account for nearly half of all AI spending that year.

This strategic shift will reshape the industry landscape. Analysts point out that Google, which has self-developed chips, seems best positioned to quickly complete this transition, as its internal chips can handle both training and reasoning tasks simultaneously. In contrast, companies like Microsoft and Meta, which heavily rely on Nvidia chips, may lack flexibility and face greater challenges in transformation.

Currently, tech giants are accelerating the shift of investment focus from AI model training to reasoning—i.e., the process of running these systems after model training is complete. These systems take more time to compute user query responses, simulating the human thought process, but also provide new revenue opportunities for software and may shift some costs from the development phase to post-model launch