Amazon forecast holiday-quarter sales below Wall Street expectations, a potential sign of growing pressure on consumers as inflation picks up. (AFP pic)NEW YORK: Wall Street's worries about the cost of the AI boom escalated after the market close on Thursday, as results from Amazon and Intel showed the infrastructure race is not only straining the tech industry but affecting consumers.
Surging data-center spending, as highlighted in Amazon's massive cash burn, has turned once debt-light tech giants into major borrowers, while price hikes are squeezing global demand for devices like smartphones and PCs.
Amazon forecast holiday-quarter sales below Wall Street expectations, a potential sign of growing pressure on consumers as inflation picks up, which also hit Intel's PC business, as a memory chip shortage has driven up its costs.
