The latest Q2 earnings from big tech show a mix of soaring and wobbling figures, hinting the AI bubble may be tightening. Meta saw a dramatic drop in free cash flow after heavy capex on new data centers, leading to a sharp sell‑off. Amazon rallied 15% as investors praised AWS’s AI‑driven growth, though its margins were partly buoyed by one‑time energy‑price hedges. Apple and IBM also felt pressure, with Apple sliding 10% after costly memory warnings and IBM losing more value than since Black Monday. A hedge fund linked to former FTX founder plummeted from $45 billion to $10 billion, illustrating relevant risk. Core insights were shared by the Kettle hosts: the market is still playing a sunk‑cost game, pushing capital into AI], where $53.4 billion of Anthropic deals and $20 billion of Open AI revenue are being counted across multiple segments. IT teams are advised not to chase frontier lab spend but to focus on cost control and realistic revenue projections.

The episode underscores that investors are still trying to gauge when the AI boom will plateau, and the sector’s hefty capex may be a sign of an impending shift.

Key take‑away: keep a tight eye on cash flow and avoid over‑committing to unproven AI ventures_plane.