Bank of America Market Survey: Majority of investors do not believe the AI bull market has peaked, with the rally set to continue in the second half of the year.

Bank of America (BofA)’s latest investor survey reveals market sentiment toward AI capital expenditure is growing more nuanced. Most investors do not think the AI spending boom has peaked, and still expect this wave of expenditure to continue in the second half of the year. At the same time, concerns are rising over hyperscalers’ excessive spending pace, debt pressure and credit risks. The survey shows investors are not broadly betting on the end of the AI cycle. Instead, the market still believes large platforms including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta will keep expanding investments in data centers, GPUs and power infrastructure. The problem is that the pace of capital expenditure growth has become so fast that some investors are starting to worry about free cash flow, share repurchase capacity and balance sheet flexibility. Per BofA’s survey methodology, AI has evolved from a pure growth story to a capital discipline issue. Over the past two years, the market rewarded companies for heavy AI investments; now, investors are starting to question the return periods of these investments, depreciation pressures, and whether cloud providers will be forced into overbuilding amid competition.