On Sunday, former White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful drivers of the U.S. economy as Morgan Stanley raised its forecast for hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending.

Morgan Stanley Projects Massive AI Capex Boom From Big Tech

Morgan Stanley now expects Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) to collectively spend about $805 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, up from its prior $765 billion estimate.

For 2027, projected spending has climbed to roughly $1.1 trillion, compared with an earlier $951 billion forecast.

Read Also: Meta's Drop Is Historic: Is The Buy Opportunity Even Bigger?

David Sacks Calls AI A Major Economic Tailwind

Reacting to the report on X, Sacks said AI capital spending could contribute roughly 2.5% to GDP growth this year and more than 3% next year.

"I've been saying for a while that AI capex will be a 2% tailwind to GDP growth this year," Sacks wrote. "In fact, according to a new report from Morgan Stanley, the numbers are even stronger."

He added that AI-related investment already accounted for about 75% of first-quarter GDP growth, framing the sector as a core pillar of economic expansion.

AI Investment Could Deliver Broader Productivity Gains

Sacks argued Morgan Stanley's estimates may still understate AI's broader impact because they focus primarily on five hyperscalers and exclude startups, enterprises and other sectors investing heavily in AI.

He also noted that infrastructure spending alone does not capture the downstream productivity generated by AI systems.

"Technology leadership has always been America's great strength, and it's driving the economy forward," Sacks said.

AI Spending Boom May Boost S&P 500 Earnings

Last week, short-seller Jim Chanos said rising AI-related capital expenditures could boost S&P 500 earnings-per-share forecasts for 2026 and 2027.

In April, JPMorgan projected in April that leading U.S. cloud providers would increase AI spending by $200 billion.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Read Also: The 'Prove It' Quarter: How Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, And Alphabet Backed AI Capex With Real Run Rates

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock