This year, investment by major big tech companies in artificial intelligence (AI) and AI infrastructure is expected to exceed KRW 1,000 trillion. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, along with Amazon and Meta, has signaled that they will inject a record amount of capital into AI infrastructure this year, and OpenAI is also in the process of raising funds. Amid fears that even a brief pause in investment will lead to an irrecoverable loss of ground, a “war chest” battle among big tech companies to preempt the AI market is intensifying. Cooperative relationships in which they invested in each other are now a thing of the past; as the power struggle overheats, mudslinging is also emerging.

On 9 February, the combined capital expenditure (CAPEX) outlook for four big tech companies—Amazon, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Microsoft (MS), and Meta—indicates that the funds they will pour into AI and related infrastructure this year could reach up to USD 665 billion (about KRW 974 trillion). Amazon has stated it will invest up to KRW 20 trillion, the largest amount among them, while Alphabet has forecast up to USD 185 billion, MS up to USD 145 billion, and Meta up to USD 135 billion. OpenAI is also seeking to raise a total of USD 100 billion, so the actual total AI investment by big tech companies this year is expected to far exceed KRW 1,000 trillion.

In the AI market, where there is no clear dominant player, the fierce preemptive competition among big tech firms has prompted market concerns over a “deterioration in profitability,” but big tech companies, mindful of a “winner-takes-all” structure, are not slowing their investment pace. Unlike in the past, when they supported and pulled each other along, they are now openly engaging in psychological warfare. On 8 February (local time), U.S. IT specialist media outlet The Information reported that Judson Althoff, MS’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), recently emailed the company’s sales organization to train them on counterarguments to OpenAI’s new AI agent management service, “Frontier.” Having once grown with MS’s support, OpenAI has now released a competing product that threatens MS’s own AI agent management service “Azure,” prompting MS to go on alert.

MS was one of the early investors that provided USD 1 billion in 2019, three years before OpenAI announced “ChatGPT,” when OpenAI was suffering from a funding crunch. Subsequently, through additional investments, MS has provided more than USD 10 billion to OpenAI. However, last year OpenAI converted into a public benefit corporation (PBC) that can pursue profit, thereby reducing its dependence on MS, and it has also cooperated with Amazon Web Services (AWS), MS’s competitor.

MS announced late last year that it would invest USD 5 billion in Anthropic as well, but it has also come under threat from Anthropic. Anthropic unveiled “Claude CoWork,” a service in which AI autonomously operates a user’s computer system to perform complex tasks, and as this service triggered a “software crisis” narrative, MS’s share price also wobbled.

Google was likewise one of the early investors that enabled Anthropic’s current position, but once Google began full-scale development of its AI model “Gemini,” their relationship cooled.

Competition among AI companies has spilled over into “Super Bowl advertising.” Anthropic recently used a Super Bowl commercial costing more than KRW 1 billion per 30 seconds to indirectly criticize rival OpenAI’s adoption of ChatGPT ads. In the ad, a man asks a trainer, “How can I quickly get six-pack abs?” and the trainer, initially offering advice like an AI chatbot, suddenly recommends a particular brand of shoe insoles. In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed displeasure, calling it a “misleading ad.”

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