Big Tech earnings to test AI boom amid market turmoil

Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet are expected to report accelerating cloud growth this week, but turbulence in global markets and mounting concerns over the cost of financing AI investments are clouding the outlook. Investors are pressing for evidence that the AI boom can deliver swift returns to justify its enormous price tag. Rising bond yields at AI cloud providers such as CoreWeave and record costs to insure Meta Platform's debt have amplified concerns about how the massive AI infrastructure buildout is being funded, particularly as higher U.S. interest rates loom. Market turmoil has rekindled warnings of an AI bubble from investors, including hedge fund Citadel's founder Ken Griffin, and pushed companies to delay their IPOs. An expected Democratic sweep of the U.S. midterm elections could spell more trouble for data centers that are already a target of protests over their impact on power grids, electricity bills and the environment. China's tech-stock boom has unravelled, wiping out about $480 billion in market value in less than four months as concerns over AI demand and spending an