Apollo chief economist reports zero financial payoff from enterprise AI spending
Analyzing the S&P 493, Torsten Sløk finds flat profit margins and stagnant revenue per employee despite hundreds of billions in infrastructure capex.
Technology news
Despite unprecedented corporate excitement and more than $200 billion in annual generative AI infrastructure capital expenditures, corporate America outside the technology sector has seen virtually zero measurable financial return, according to a research note published Sunday by Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Sløk.
Sløk examined operating margins and worker efficiency across what he terms the 'S&P 493'—the S&P 500 minus the core tech hyperscalers Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. His findings indicate that both operating profit margins and revenue per employee have remained flat across the broader index, demonstrating no measurable productivity boost from widespread enterprise pilot programs.
“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” Sløk stated. He voiced skepticism toward the argument that non-tech corporations simply face a delayed adoption curve, contending that converting cheap intelligence into corporate pricing power faces severe structural limits.
Sløk emphasized that business intelligence fundamentally requires contextual judgment, reputational accountability, and navigation of complex organizational ethics rather than raw pattern completion. He concluded that until autonomous agents can reliably bear legal and operational accountability for enterprise decisions, generative AI spending risks depressing operating margins rather than expanding corporate bottom lines.