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AI 烧钱大战再升级：Microsoft、Meta 资本开支冲向天文数字
The AI Spending War Escalates: Microsoft and Meta Push Capex Toward Astronomical Numbers
A medium Chinese listening story: Microsoft and Meta reported soaring AI capex, ~$97B and $130-145B, with the market now judging stocks on spending, echoing Google's negative-cash-flow moment.
This is an HSK 3-4 Chinese listening episode that runs about 1 minute. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 10 key vocabulary words such as 提高、担心、重要 and walks through 3 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
这个星期，美国两家科技巨头 Microsoft 和 Meta，都交出了新的财报。
This week, two American tech giants, Microsoft and Meta, turned in new earnings reports.
可大家最关心的，已经从"它们赚了多少钱"，变成了"它们要花多少钱"。
But what everyone cares about most has shifted from "how much did they make" to "how much will they spend."
花在哪里？
Spend on what?
答案还是那两个字：AI。
The answer is still those two letters: AI.
为了做 AI，它们要买海量的服务器和芯片，还要盖一座座数据中心，这些都贵得惊人。
To build AI, they have to buy mountains of servers and chips and build data center after data center, all staggeringly expensive.
Microsoft 说，过去一年它花了差不多九百七十亿美元，明年这个数字还会涨两成多。
Microsoft says it spent about ninety-seven billion dollars over the past year, and next year the number will climb more than twenty percent.
再往后一年，可能会冲到一千七百多亿美元。
The year after that, it could shoot past one hundred seventy billion dollars.
Meta 也不甘落后，把今年的开支，提高到了一千三百亿到一千四百五十亿美元。
Meta isn't falling behind either, raising this year's spending to between one hundred thirty and one hundred forty-five billion dollars.
明年，它花的钱，可能比今年还要多近八成。
Next year, the money it spends could be almost eighty percent more than this year.
这些数字，一个比一个吓人。
These numbers are each scarier than the last.
更微妙的是，现在的股市，看一家公司，几乎和看它"花钱的计划"一样重要。
More subtly, in today's stock market, judging a company is almost as much about its "spending plan" as about its earnings.
花得太多，股价可能马上就跌。
Spend too much, and the stock price can drop right away.
就在几天前，Google 也刚刚说过，自己在 AI 上花的钱，多到让现金流第一次转负。
Just days ago, Google said that it had spent so much on AI that its cash flow turned negative for the first time.
于是很多人开始担心：这场谁都不敢停的"AI 烧钱大战"，最后到底能不能赚回来？
So many people are starting to worry: this "AI spending war" that no one dares to stop, can it be earned back in the end?
把开支提高到 = raised spending to.
很多人开始担心 = many people are starting to worry.
和看它花钱一样重要 = as important as its spending.
要买海量的服务器和芯片 = have to buy mountains of servers and chips.
Microsoft 说 = Microsoft says.
两家科技巨头 = two tech giants.
交出了新的财报 = turned in new earnings reports.
买海量的服务器 = buy mountains of servers.
服务器和芯片 = servers and chips.
盖一座座数据中心 = build data center after data center.
* beyond level超纲词
从 A，变成了 B
从 A 变成 B = "shift from A to B".
已经从"赚了多少钱"，变成了"要花多少钱"。
一个比一个……
一个比一个 + adj = "each one more … than the last".
这些数字，一个比一个吓人。
和……一样重要
和 X 一样 Y = "as Y as X".
看一家公司，几乎和看它花钱的计划一样重要。
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