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On October 24, 2026, Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok put forward a judgment in the "Daily Spark" column: AI has not yet brought financial returns outside the US tech industry. He pointed out that, after adjusting for inflation, revenue per employee at the seven tech giants—Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, and Meta—is rising, while both revenue per employee and profit margins at the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 have remained flat, and there is no sign of AI driving productivity growth. Slok also said that mainstream enterprises have begun to cut back on AI spending, treating token consumption as a cost that drags down profit margins rather than a source of growth; he believes the ultimate direction of the AI narrative will be decided by the S&P 493. Subsequent reports repeated the above views and mentioned that Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius holds the opposite view. There are currently no new developments.
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Apollo Economist Slok: AI Dividend Benefits Only the Magnificent Seven, No Returns Seen for S&P 493Developments
1 confirmed developments
Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok: No signs of AI payoff outside U.S. tech
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Reports and discussion timeline
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Oct 27
cnBeta
Apollo Economist Slok: AI Dividend Benefits Only the Magnificent Seven, No Returns Seen for S&P 493
Apollo economist Slok analyzed in the "Daily Spark" column that, after inflation adjustment, revenue per employee is rising only at the Magnificent Seven tech giants—Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple and Meta—while revenue per employee and profit margins are both flat at the other 493 S&P 500 companies. He said he sees no sign of AI driving productivity growth, and that mainstream companies have begun to cut AI spending, treating token consumption as a cost that drags down profit margins. Slok believes the ultimate direction of the AI narrative will be decided by the S&P 493, while Goldman Sachs economist Hatzius holds the opposite view.
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TechSpot
Apollo Chief Economist: AI Gains Concentrated in Seven Companies, No Returns Seen for S&P 493
Torsten Slok, Chief Economist at Apollo Global Management, noted in a Daily Spark note that inflation-adjusted revenue per capita and profit margins rose only for the Magnificent 7 (Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Google/Alphabet, Apple, Meta), while both metrics remained flat for the remaining S&P 493, indicating that AI has not yet delivered productivity growth. He believes mainstream companies have already come to view token spending as a cost that drags down profits and have scaled back their investment, and that AI's macroeconomic impact will depend on the S&P 493 rather than the seven giants. Gartner previously estimated that more than $3.5 trillion in AI infrastructure investment could face impairment by the end of 2030, while Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius believes AI investment will ultimately translate into higher productivity and economy-wide profits.
Oct 26
IT Home · Artificial Intelligence
Apollo Chief Economist: Outside the Magnificent Seven, AI Has Yet to Help US Companies Earn Real Money
Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, noted in a research report that for the S&P 493—the S&P 500 excluding the seven tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—profit margins and revenue per employee have remained essentially flat, with no evidence that AI has improved their productivity. He believes it is difficult for ordinary US companies to convert increasingly cheap intelligent computing power into faster revenue growth and higher profit margins, because most of the intelligence businesses need is judgment, and AI cannot understand responsibility, trust, corporate culture, or ethical trade-offs.
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heise online
Apollo Chief Economist Says AI Has Not Brought Financial Returns to US Companies Outside the Magnificent Seven
Apollo Global Chief Economist Torsten Slok said in weekend commentary that, apart from the seven largest tech companies—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—AI technology has so far brought no financial returns to US companies. He noted that revenue per employee and profit margins for S&P 493 companies have stagnated for years, with only these seven companies growing, and that there is still no sign that AI has boosted productivity. He also mentioned that venture-backed companies are spending increasingly on tokens, while established US companies do not need the latest AI models and are unwilling to pay for them, and are now viewing token spending not as a source of growth but as a cost factor that suppresses profit margins.
cnBeta
Apollo: AI Only Enriched Tech Companies, Other Industries Were Dragged Down Instead
Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok pointed out that, outside the tech industry, AI has not brought financial returns to American companies, and mainstream enterprises are now treating token spending as a cost center that drags down profit margins. Since 2022, revenue per employee at tech companies has risen from $550,000 to nearly $800,000, with profit margins climbing sharply; at other S&P 500 companies, revenue per employee has hovered around $550,000 for seven years, with profit margins stagnating near 10%.
36Kr · AI
DeepSeek's Hundred-Billion Financing and Zero AI Returns: Two Sides of Capital Frenzy
DeepSeek's new funding round overshot its 500 billion target to nearly 1 trillion, with a pre-money valuation of about 500 billion; Tencent and CATL led the investment, and two rounds within half a year have absorbed over 1.5 trillion in capital. The article also cites data from Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok stating that, excluding tech giants, AI's financial return to U.S. companies is zero, and the S&P 493's per-capita revenue, profit margin, and total factor productivity have all flatlined. Using the list of autonomous driving companies that exited from 2019 to 2026 as a reference, the author argues that general-purpose large models and embodied intelligence are repeating the same path, and notes that DeepSeek plans to build a data center in Ulanqab and deploy at least 160,000 Huawei Ascend chips for frontier model pre-training.
Huxiu
Behind DeepSeek's Hundred-Billion Financing: Zero AI Returns and Bubble Risk
DeepSeek's new funding round was oversubscribed from a 50 billion target to nearly 100 billion, with a pre-money valuation of about 500 billion; Tencent and CATL led the investment, and the company plans to deploy at least 160,000 Huawei Ascend chips in Ulanqab for domestic-compute pre-training. The author cites data from Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok stating that, excluding tech giants, the per-capita revenue, profit margin and productivity of S&P 493 companies have not risen due to AI, and that the top 10% of companies account for 99.5% of model serving and inference costs. The article also notes that about 42% of enterprise AI projects have been abandoned by their parent companies, that at least 25 domestic AI applications ceased operations in 2025, and, citing the exit of more than 40 autonomous driving companies between 2019 and 2026, warns that embodied intelligence may repeat the bubble.
East Money
Apollo Chief Economist: AI Dividends Currently Captured Only by Tech Companies
Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok noted in a report that AI has not brought profit benefits to large enterprises outside the tech industry, and that only tech giants such as Nvidia and Meta have achieved revenue growth amid the AI boom. He focused on analyzing the S&P 493 constituents—the S&P 500 excluding the seven major tech stocks—and found that their profit margins and per-capita revenue were essentially flat, with no evidence that AI is raising productivity. Data shows that since 2022, per-capita revenue at tech companies has risen from $550,000 to nearly $800,000, while other companies have hovered around $550,000 for the past seven years, with profit margins also holding at around 10%.
Cailian Press
Apollo Chief Economist: AI Dividends Currently Accrue Only to Tech Companies
Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok pointed out in a report that AI has not brought profit benefits to large enterprises outside the tech industry, and only tech giants have reaped this round of dividends. Comparing S&P 493 constituent stocks, he found that their profit margins and per-capita revenue have remained basically flat, with no evidence that AI is raising productivity; meanwhile, tech companies' per-capita revenue has risen from $550,000 in 2022 to nearly $800,000, and profit margins have also climbed sharply. He believes it is difficult for U.S. companies to convert increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and profit margins.
SiliconANGLE
Apollo Analysis: Apart from the Seven Tech Giants, US Companies Have Yet to Reap AI Gains
Analyst Torsten Slok of Apollo Global Management published an analysis stating that the S&P 493 companies—excluding Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—have yet to see financial returns from AI investments, with profit margins and revenue per employee essentially flat. Data shows that revenue per employee at the seven tech giants has risen from about $550,000 in 2022 to nearly $800,000 this year, while the S&P 493 has remained at about $550,000 since 2019. Slok believes mainstream companies are treating token spending as a cost item that drags down profit margins, and notes that AI still faces challenges in areas such as business judgment, accountability, and cultural understanding.
Phoenix Tech
Apollo Report: AI Dividends Concentrated in Tech Companies, Other Industries See Profit Margins Stagnate
Apollo Global Management released an economic analysis report stating that the revenue growth brought by the AI boom has been captured mainly by tech giants such as Nvidia and Meta, while other industries have not shared in this dividend. The report shows that since 2022, revenue per employee at tech companies has risen from $550,000 to nearly $800,000, while at other S&P 500 companies it has hovered around $550,000 for the past seven years; tech company profit margins have climbed sharply, while other companies have maintained margins of around 10%. Chief Economist Slok said that mainstream U.S. companies are treating Token spending as a cost center that drags down profit margins.
TechCrunch AI
Apollo Chief Economist Says AI Has Not Delivered Financial Returns for Most Companies
Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, said in a report that the profit margins and revenue per employee of the S&P 493 companies—excluding Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla—have remained essentially flat, with no evidence that AI has improved productivity. He said that despite massive investment and intense hype around AI, the technology has delivered zero financial return for U.S. companies outside the tech industry. Slok believes it is difficult for companies to convert increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and profit margins, and said AI may be a very powerful calculator, but intelligence in business is more about judgment.
Oct 25
Hacker News Trending
Apollo Chief Economist: No AI Returns Seen Outside the Tech Industry
Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok noted in Daily Spark that AI has not yet delivered financial returns outside the tech industry: revenue per employee and profit margins are rising for the Mag 7, while the S&P 493 is essentially flat, and there are no signs that productivity growth has been boosted by AI. The article argues that as models become commoditized, mainstream companies are treating token spending as a cost item that drags down profit margins rather than a source of growth; the economic impact of AI will ultimately depend on the S&P 493 rather than the Mag 7.
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