​How Big Tech’s Financials Obscure the True Cost of the AI Buildout

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, host Telis Demos and Heard on the Street columnist Jonathan Weil sit down with Kevin Koharki, principal at CAE Consulting and professor at Purdue University, to pull back the curtain on the opaque world of tech companies’ financial statements. They dig into why the massive infrastructure spend on AI data centers might be obscuring other fundamental corporate costs, specifically stock-based compensation. Koharki explains why tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Google’s parent company Alphabet need to provide clearer financial reporting. He breaks down the challenge investors face in distinguishing between necessary AI capital expenditure and other underlying costs, and why greater transparency is critical to accurately valuing these businesses in the current market. This is WSJ’s Take On the Week where co-hosts Telis Demos, Heard on the Street’s banking and money columnist, and Miriam Gottfried, WSJ’s investing and wealth ma...