AI's Super Bowl Takeover
The Weekend Edition is pulled from the daily Stansberry Digest.
Editor's note:The Weekend Edition is pulled from the daily Stansberry Digest. We're sharing one of those pieces with you today. Also, the markets and our offices will be closed on Monday in observance of Presidents Day. So keep an eye out for your next issue of DailyWealth on Tuesday, February 17.
Artificial intelligence ("AI") was all over the Super Bowl...
During the Super Bowl 60 broadcast, there were more multimillion-dollar AI commercials (15) than points scored on the field by the losing team, the New England Patriots (13).
AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic both had ads. Meanwhile, cable business Xfinity used AI to make the cast of Jurassic Park look like they were still in 1993. And vodka-maker Svedka ran an entirely AI-generated ad featuring humanoid robots partying in a club. The tagline: Shake Your Bots Off.
In short, AI either created or was the focus of 23% of the ads for America's most-watched annual entertainment event.
Usually, when a story or technology becomes as pervasive as this, it means we're near – or at – the height of the speculation or popularity about it.
Today's AI Craze Mirrors the Dot-Com Bubble
In January 2000, the Super Bowl featured 14 ads from different dot-com companies. A year later, brokerage firm E-Trade ran an ad mocking all the previous dot-com ads, including one from the already defunct Pets.com.
That said, the Internet reshaped our lives. It's still around in a big way today. And a handful of businesses that advertised during the 2000 Super Bowl have survived, like WebMD, Autotrader.com, and Monster.com. Notably, they're all from high-demand industries: health care, vehicles, and job-seeking, respectively.
But some of the biggest dot-com-era winners, like Amazon (AMZN), Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT), didn't have any high-priced airtime during the NFL's championship game some 25 years ago.
Facebook, now Meta Platforms (META), wasn't even created yet.
More recently, in February 2022, crypto companies were paying millions of dollars to advertise during the Super Bowl.
Later that year, one of those companies – crypto exchange FTX – went bankrupt.
A year later, zero crypto companies were featured during the Super Bowl. And this year, Coinbase (COIN) was the only crypto company to advertise during the game.
The point is, some trends and trend-following companies stick, and some don't.
Today, AI is undoubtedly becoming more pervasive in our lives. But making a long-lasting business that uses or sells the technology is an entirely different story.
The AI boom will have both winners and losers...
The big tech companies that ran AI ads – like Alphabet (for its Google Gemini platform), Microsoft (for Copilot), and Amazon (for Alexa) – aren't going bust anytime soon. But they are increasing spending at a parabolic rate. And they're facing increasing expectations from Wall Street.
But other firms might not be so fortunate.
I suspect AI workplace assistant startup Genspark, which used AI to write the script for its ad, will face big competition in the years ahead. And AI.com ran into trouble before the game even ended. As AdWeek reported...
During the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 60, AI.com, an AI platform founded by Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, aired a 30-second ad imploring viewers to create a handle for the website.
Unfortunately, all the traffic from the commercial crashed the website, with viewers airing their grievances on social media...
Marszalek responded to the crash on X, saying, "Insane traffic levels. We prepared for scale, but not for THIS."
Maybe AI.com will pick up the pieces from here... We'll see.
A lot of people think they know who the AI megatrend survivors will be, but as history and last week's big pop culture stage show, the winners and losers are still being decided.
The reality of how AI "sticks" over the next 25 years will likely fall somewhere between being the biggest tech breakthrough and greatest hope for humanity ever and a passing, dangerous fad.
But this we know: The companies that create sustainable value, have great leadership, and successfully adapt to changing consumer and business demands are the most likely to survive and thrive.
Big Tech's AI Bet Is Getting Bigger
Last week, both Alphabet and Amazon released their results for the fourth quarter.
Here are the highlights...
Alphabet beat Wall Street's estimates on both earnings and revenue, while also crossing above 750 million monthly active users for its Gemini AI offerings.
Amazon reported a mixed quarter – with earnings per share coming in below expectations, but revenue beating analysts' estimates.
But the high-level numbers aren't what investors cared about...
As we've written, all eyes were on AI spending. And both companies delivered some big numbers on that front...
For 2026, Alphabet forecasts total capital expenditures ("capex") to be between $175 billion and $185 billion. That's double the $90 billion the company spent on capex in 2025.
As for Amazon, the company forecasts $200 billion in capex this year, up 53% from 2025 and well above Wall Street's estimate of around $145 billion.
It's not just these two...
When you add in Meta Platforms and Microsoft, these four "hyperscalers" have pledged more than $650 billion in capex this year – up 71% from 2025.
Including Oracle (ORCL) and CoreWeave (CRWV), total hyperscaler capex will likely exceed $660 billion this year. As our Stansberry's Investment Advisory team showed last week, that's up from less than $140 billion only a few years ago...
In short, AI spending is taking off at an exponential rate. And while it may pay off in the long term if these companies establish their leadership, it's raising plenty of questions.
Investors are losing their patience with this spending. When you couple high capex with expensive valuations (each of the hyperscalers has a price-to-earnings multiple above the average S&P 500 company), the investing case for these stocks is murky.
That doesn't mean we believe the AI bubble has "popped," or you should rush for the exits.
But the market's reaction to 2026's spending increases is a reason for caution. Investors are starting to demand a "payoff" from all this investment. They want more than spending plans... and Super Bowl ads.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin
Editor's note: The AI boom is entering a far more selective phase, according to Marc Chaikin, founder of our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics. He says the coming "rupture" will sharply divide winners from losers – with less than 2% of stocks set to rise from here. On Tuesday, he'll reveal his system for spotting the few companies with the strongest earnings momentum before Wall Street catches on.