In the market, I hold one core belief close: price is truth. What I mean is that the daily ups and downs of stocks tell investors a story, and over time, those stories gradually piece together a fuller picture. Of course, these narratives aren’t always spot‑on—why does a beat or a miss on earnings send a stock cratering or soaring? Because the stories market participants tell are never 100% accurate.

Yet the violent reactions we’ve seen early this tech earnings season are testing my patience with that conviction. When the market treats rising AI‑related capital expenditures as a negative, something feels off to me. I’ve seen AI in action, I’ve watched it being monetised, and I’m hearing nothing about a slowdown—quite the opposite. I’ve glimpsed the promised land of AI, and it’s only getting richer!

AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su told me: “I absolutely believe in the power of compute. When I say AI compute is intelligence, how could you not want more intelligence? Of course you want more.” She added: “The key question now is, where are the returns on these investments? We are seeing returns. At AMD itself, our use of AI is growing significantly month over month, and we see productivity gains—better products, greater capabilities, faster time‑to‑market. In the long‑run trajectory of technology, these results will show up.”

This week, I had a similar conversation with Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach. He is increasingly using AI to build fraud‑prevention capabilities and to advance agentic commerce. This isn’t wishful thinking—it’s happening right now on the platform.

Take IBM. Without a doubt, the company had a rough month, hit by a disastrous earnings warning. But the reason for the miss was precisely the allocation of capital to AI, not a reduction in it. IBM CFO Jim Kavanaugh told Yahoo Finance: “What’s new now is… given the AI investments that enterprises are going to make—and I believe those investments will ultimately be commercialised and valued—they are building out the infrastructure portfolio to support that future AI vision.”

Yet here we are, watching a string of marquee tech names get hammered.

Alphabet’s second‑quarter capital expenditure came in at $44.9 billion, slightly above the Street’s $44.7 billion estimate. Full‑year capex guidance was raised from the prior $180‑190 billion range to $195‑205 billion, and executives said on the call that “meaningful” growth would continue into 2027. Alphabet shares fell 7.13% on Thursday, wiping out roughly $293 billion in market value. I’d urge you to read that earnings call transcript again—it’s clear that AI is being monetised at Alphabet, and to an increasing degree.

Tesla, for its part, said it would spend $25 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, roughly three times its historical outlay, and expects another big increase in 2027 to support Elon Musk’s push for Optimus and robotaxi production. Tesla’s stock plunged 14.5% on Thursday.

Does any of this selling really make sense? Executives are handsomely paid to place bets on the future. And today, those bets are on AI. In many cases, the wagers made 18 months ago are now generating returns. So when investors flee because capex is rising, do they really know more about the future of technology than Elon Musk and Lisa Su? I don’t think so. Give these companies some room to deliver on their promises. My guess is that 24 months from now, we’ll be singing a very different tune.

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Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor, host of the “Power Players with Brian Sozzi” podcast, and a member of the Yahoo Finance editorial leadership team.