The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Thursday, with the Nasdaq dragged to its lowest since November by losses in Microsoft, Amazon and other tech heavyweights after Alphabet said it could double capital spending on artificial intelligence in the race to dominate the emerging technology. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that Alphabet shares fell 0.55 per cent after the Google parent said it plans as much as $185-billion (U.S.) in capex in 2026. Together, it and its Big Tech rivals are expected to collectively shell out more than $500-billion (U.S.) on AI this year. Microsoft dropped 5 per cent, Palantir Technologies lost 6.8 per cent and Oracle fell 7 per cent. Amazon lost 4.4 per cent during regular trading and then tumbled another 10 per cent after the closing bell, joining its Big Tech peers in projecting massive capital expenditures in 2026. Investors in recent months have grown more wary of heavy spending on AI, awaiting stronger signs those investments are actually boosting revenue and profits. Investors this week have also worried that rapidly improving AI tools could eat into demand for traditional software, squeezing profit margins across the sector.