Financial Times reported large tech firms booked more than $160 billion of
unexpected valuation gains last quarter from equity investments in other AI
companies, lifting pre-tax profits. Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA and Microsoft said
the accounting line "other income" was materially boosted by these one-off
valuation gains. The gains largely reflect market enthusiasm for AI and could
distort assessments of the AI ecosystem’s strength and cyclicality. Goldman
Sachs' chief US equity strategist said investors are increasingly asking whether
reported growth is demand-driven or, to some extent, misleading.