Technology
Microsoft confirmed on its latest earnings call that despite surging cloud and AI demand, its capital expenditure plans for calendar year 2026 remain largely unchanged. An accounting adjustment lowered the capital expenditure forecast from approximately $190 billion to $175 billion, while the company also extended the useful life estimates for data centers and office buildings.
CleanSpark is advancing its biggest strategic bet in history: developing a 175 MW AI data center campus in Sandersville, Georgia, with a 20-year, $6.6 billion lease signed with an unnamed global technology company. In an exclusive interview, President and CFO Gary Vecchiarelli reflected on the journey of rebuilding the finance organization since taking over in 2021, explained why AI is a natural extension of the company's power asset portfolio, and shared insights gained amid the dramatic transformation of the Bitcoin mining industry.
An exclusive Intuit survey found that 57% of finance executives missed strategic actions in the past six months due to delayed financial data, with only 14% using same-day data for major decisions. Data silos and manual processes remain major obstacles, with a single data source serving as a dividing line between high-growth companies and their peers.
Gartner announced on Monday an upward revision of its global IT spending forecast for 2026 to $6.37 trillion, up 14.2% from 2025 and higher than the April forecast of $6.31 trillion. Demand for AI infrastructure remains strong, despite concerns about an AI bubble in the market.
US House bipartisan lawmakers introduced the 'AI Emergency Kill Switch Act,' requiring major AI developers to retain the technical capability to pause or shut down models, and authorizing the Department of Homeland Security to intervene when necessary. This follows OpenAI's disclosure of an 'unprecedented cyber incident' during model testing.
A report released Wednesday by AI security company WitnessAI reveals that nearly 70% (68%) of U.S. companies admit that some AI projects exceeded budget in the past year, with 33% stating that overruns occurred frequently or always. The survey of 300 corporate executives also found that companies face difficulties in proving the return on AI investments, with only 9% of respondents indicating that more than three-quarters of their AI projects delivered measurable financial returns.
A joint study by MIT FutureTech and the University of Queensland shows that by 2030, the probability of catastrophic harm from uncontrolled or weaponized AI is 10%, with the financial sector facing prominent risks; even with mitigation measures, experts still believe multiple risk areas have a probability of catastrophic outcomes exceeding 5%.
In an interview with CFO Dive, BlackLine CFO Patrick Villanova pointed out that token-based AI pricing models lack predictability, posing challenges to financial budgeting. He introduced that BlackLine adopts 'outcome-based' pricing and emphasized that AI applications need to be transparent and auditable. He believes that user-based pricing is being phased out, and an outcome-oriented model will become the mainstream.
A survey released by Gartner on July 20 shows that nearly half (45%) of finance leaders' AI investments are mainly aimed at productivity improvement, with only one-fifth focusing on decision quality. Although 87% of finance leaders feel pressure to link AI spending to business outcomes, only 22% have achieved this goal. The analysis points out that returns on efficiency-oriented investments may plateau, while decision-quality projects are more likely to deliver significant value.
OpenAI released a new framework on Friday, arguing that the value of AI should be measured by the number of successfully completed tasks and total cost, rather than traditional software metrics such as user count or activity levels. This comes at a time when global AI spending is projected to reach $2.59 trillion by 2026, yet only 12% of CEOs report gains in both cost savings and revenue.