Franklin Templeton’s Head Market Strategist, Chris Galipeau, dismissed skepticism on AI capital expenditures, calling the spending cycle “early innings” on the firm’s “Talking Markets” podcast on July 21. He stated that AI capital expenditures are “real and ongoing,” citing that the top five hyperscalers spent just over $100 billion in CapEx in 2023, a figure projected to exceed $700 billion in 2026, roughly a 7x increase in three years. Galipeau forecasts that the S&P 500 could achieve over 20% year-over-year earnings growth in the second quarter of 2026, driven by AI-related spending and improving bank earnings. He framed the investment cycle as being in the “early innings,” pushing back against analysts questioning returns on infrastructure bets. Galipeau’s commentary did not mention Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any digital assets. The article notes that if S&P 500 earnings growth exceeds 20% in Q2 2026, it could signal risk-on sentiment for asset classes including crypto. It also states that the $700 billion is going into hyperscaler facilities, not decentralized GPU networks, and that the spread between hyperscaler CapEx growth and actual revenue generation from AI products will be a key metric to track.