AI spending is generating revenue for technology providers, but most other S&P 500 companies have yet to show comparable gains in productivity or profit margins, a report by Apollo’s Daily Spark analysis has shown.
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Artificial intelligence has helped fuel a boom in technology spending, but the financial benefits remain difficult to spot across much of corporate America. Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok said on October 24 that revenue per worker and profit margins were rising for the Magnificent Seven technology stocks while remaining flat across the other 493 companies in the S&P 500.
Notably, Slok’s analysis found no clear evidence that AI is boosting productivity growth, despite heavy investment in the technology. Revenue per worker and profit margins have risen among the Magnificent Seven but remain flat across the other 493 companies in the S&P 500, according to the report. “Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” Slok wrote.
Running AI models at scale can quickly drive up costs since many providers charge by token usage, so bills climb as employees make more requests or AI agents process data and handle increasingly complex tasks.
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