Goldman Sachs: Surge in spending suppresses stock buybacks

Goldman Sachs strategists led by Ryan Hammond stated that driven by investments from large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) companies, capital expenditures of S&P 500 constituent companies may grow by 17% in 2025, while these investments have limited repurchase expenditures. They highlighted the five largest AI large-scale companies—Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle. Although large-scale companies "have sufficient capacity for more investment spending," they have been reluctant to buy back their own stocks; Goldman Sachs noted that the group's repurchase growth has remained flat compared to the same period last year over the past four quarters