Editor's Picks: Big tech's bid for power

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  This episode of Editors' Picks is supported by IDA Ireland.

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  With the highest share of STEM graduates per capita in the EU,

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  IDA Ireland can help source the skills you need to internationalise and thrive.

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  Visit idaireland.com to learn more.

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  The Economist Hello, this is Alok Jha,

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  host of Babbage, our weekly podcast on science and technology.

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  Welcome to Editors' Picks.

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  We've chosen an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist.

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  Please do have a listen.

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  A lot more.

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  According to their latest quarterly reports, Alphabet, which owns Google,

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  Amazon and Microsoft, the world's cloud computing giants,

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  collectively invested $40 billion between January and March,

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  most of it in data centres to deal with growing artificial intelligence, AI, workloads.

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  Last month, Meta,

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  which does not have a cloud business but does run a data-hungry social media empire,

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  said its capital expenditure could reach $40 billion this year as a result of AI-related projects.

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  That is not far off the $50 billion that Saudi Aramco,

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  an oil colossus, is planning to splurge.

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  Microsoft is likely to spend more.

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