A growing number of major corporations reported measurable financial returns from artificial intelligence in their third-quarter results, signaling a shift from speculative investment to quantifiable gains — even as public opposition to data center expansion intensifies ahead of U.S. midterm elections.
Corporate AI spending reached $581.7 billion in 2025, up 130% from the prior year, according to the Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index report. Hyperscalers including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta are projected to spend a combined $700 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, and investors have grown increasingly focused on when those outlays will translate into earnings.
Santander put one of the most specific figures on the table, saying AI initiatives generated 194 million euros — approximately $216 million — in business value during the first nine months of 2026. Chief Financial Officer José García Cantera told CNBC that the technology is allowing employees to move away from low-value tasks toward higher-value work.
"This affects both revenue and costs, so we are actually in the quarter where we can actually link directly to AI a positive contribution," Cantera said. He added that while it remains difficult to isolate AI's precise contribution, "clearly AI is improving the quality of our services to clients."
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis also pointed to tangible AI-driven improvements. The company reported third-quarter core operating income of $6.04 billion, a 10% increase year-on-year at constant currencies, though it did not break out AI's specific share of that gain.
CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC: "I think this is the first quarter I've really seen AI start to improve actually our P&L on a tangible basis." He cited productivity gains in marketing and sales, and said the company is working to determine whether AI can raise research and development productivity as well.
Standard Chartered CFO Manus Costello described AI as appearing "everywhere across the business," noting that the bank's operating income grew 14% in the third quarter at constant currency, excluding notable items. "Income is growing much faster than costs, and some of that is because we've been able to deploy AI tools to improve core processes and enable us to scale those up very efficiently," Costello said.
Not every company reported gains at scale. Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said the brewing company is not yet seeing AI benefits at that level, though the technology has touched internal processes, cost efficiency, pricing, marketing, and supply chain operations. Carlsberg's revenue grew 4.9% in the third quarter.
Among large technology companies, Meta said in its October 21 earnings release that AI investments were delivering "substantial incremental advertising revenue," with total revenue rising 26% in the quarter ended September 30. Alphabet reported that Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to nearly $31 billion in the third quarter, even as Google Search revenue growth slowed amid competitive concerns tied to AI alternatives.
The earnings disclosures arrive as AI's physical infrastructure has become a flashpoint in U.S. politics. A report from Data Center Watch found that nearly $200 billion in data center projects were delayed, stalled, or blocked in the first half of 2026 due to political and community opposition. States including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, New York, and Virginia are considering new regulations and transparency requirements around data center development.
Separately, Apple CEO John Ternus — who officially took the role at the beginning of September — pushed back on the perception that Apple has fallen behind on AI, in an interview with Wired's Steven Levy. "We don't want to ship AI for AI's sake," Ternus said, adding that the company intends to integrate the technology only where it produces something users "really love," without requiring them to think about whether AI or traditional software was responsible.
With midterm elections days away and earnings season still underway, the gap between AI's financial promise and its reception outside corporate boardrooms is likely to remain a central tension for the industry heading into 2027.
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