Infrastructure Strategy and Performance Trends in the AI Era: How White House Policies Are Reshaping the Semiconductor, Telecommunications, and Cloud Markets
In mid-July 2025, the U.S. stock market saw the release of quarterly earnings for major tech companies such as Texas Instruments, AT&T, Alphabet, and Tesla, heightening interest in individual company performance and stock price trends. Meanwhile, the White House unveiled an "AI Action Plan", outlining a policy to promote infrastructure development and deregulation to adapt to the AI era. This article organizes and explains the situation from four perspectives: (1) the latest earnings trends of major tech companies, (2) an overview and background of the White House AI Action Plan, (3) key points for data center and energy infrastructure development, and (4) the impact on companies and investors and future prospects.
1. Quarterly Earnings Trends of Major Tech Companies
In recent years, semiconductor, telecommunications, and internet-related companies have faced a complex mix of factors including the global economy, geopolitical risks, and AI demand, making market reactions during earnings announcements increasingly severe. This section summarizes the highlights of representative companies.
1-1. Texas Instruments' Struggles
Worst Day: In mid-July trading, TI stock recorded its "worst decline since 2008," falling by approximately 12%.
Cause Analysis: The CFO stated, "The outlook for tariff issues is uncertain, and we cannot fully grasp the inventory status of each customer," fueling market concerns about "inventory front-loading." The explanation that "orders were strong in a spike, but then returned to normal patterns" (Ian King) made it difficult to judge whether demand was based on real needs or inventory adjustments.
1-2. AT&T's Solid but Sub-Expectation Growth
Subscriber Growth: In the second quarter, the company acquired over 400,000 new wireless contracts, maintaining a certain level of growth.
Profit Forecast: While the full-year earnings outlook was maintained, it fell short of market expectations, and the stock price remained flat.
Investment Stance: Leveraging tax savings from federal tax reform, the company committed to an additional $1 billion in annual investment in its fiber-optic network. Continued investment in regional networks is attracting the attention of analysts and investors.
1-3. Alphabet (Google Parent Company) and AI Investment
Expectations Before Earnings: Against the backdrop of strong operations in the AI business, the stock price rose before the earnings announcement. The market anticipated that "if good numbers come out in the earnings, it will grow even further."
Regulatory Risk: Antitrust lawsuit rulings (such as the Red Ritter decision) are pending, and uncertainty cannot be wiped away in the short term.
Focus of AI Business: Strengthening the integration of the Gemini model into enterprise services and consumer products, analysts point out that "widespread adoption at a level where mothers use it daily is the next key."
1-4. Tesla and the Gap Between Future Investments
Revenue Decline Risk: The electric vehicle (EV) business is showing signs of slowing down, and the renewable energy sector is also concerned about the burden of tariffs.
Robotaxi Expectations: Approximately 95% of the stock price is priced into future robotaxi revenue, and the challenge is how future investments can cover the struggles of the current business.
2. Overview of the White House AI Action Plan
In July 2025, the White House announced the "AI Action Plan" to strengthen AI competitiveness. The letter is 23 pages long and mainly puts forward the following three pillars.
2-1. Infrastructure Promotion and Deregulation
Promoting Data Center Construction: Implementing deregulation to support the rapid launch of data centers in order to meet the surge in AI workloads.
Eliminating 'Excessive AI Regulation': Simplifying federal regulations and procedures to encourage corporate capital investment.
2-2. Strengthening the Domestic U.S. Technology Stack
Securing Energy Supply: Prioritizing the development of renewable energy and power transmission/distribution grids necessary for large-scale data center operations.
Reviewing Semiconductor Export Controls: Easing export restrictions on certain AI chips to China, supporting the entry of domestic companies like NVIDIA into the Chinese market.
2-3. Open Source and Building Trust
Promoting Open Source AI: Encouraging the use of open-weight and open-model systems to accelerate innovation across the entire ecosystem.
Improving AI Reliability: As pointed out by the CEO of Credo AI, 'The bottleneck for AI adoption is not the model, but reliability'—we will focus on standardization to improve evaluation criteria and transparency.
3. Key Points for Data Centers and Energy Infrastructure
The 'unsung heroes' supporting the AI revolution are data centers and the power grids that run them. This section outlines technical trends and policy support regarding infrastructure.
3-1. Rapid Surge in Demand for Hyperscale Data Centers
Construction is accelerating as LLM (Large Language Model) training and inference require several times the computing and cooling capacity compared to traditional needs.
Major cloud companies are continuing large-scale investments not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and Asia.
3-2. Compatibility with Renewable Energy
Data centers require 24/7 operation and consume massive amounts of power. There is a rapid increase in 'Power Purchase Agreements' (PPAs) for green energy, primarily wind and solar.
New local energy solutions, such as battery storage and hydrogen energy, are also in the testing phase and are expected to become more widespread.
3-3. Competition for Attraction in Collaboration with Local Governments
Driven by land and tax incentives, the U.S. Midwest, Texas, and Mountain states are actively engaging in a battle to attract these facilities.
In Colorado and New York, comprehensive support measures are being introduced, including power supply stability and infrastructure development plans for those regions.
4. Impact on Companies and Investors and Future Outlook
How will corporate strategy and investment decisions change in the wake of the AI Action Plan and earnings announcements?
4-1. From Cautious to Ambitious: Semiconductor Investment
While major players like TI and NXP have shown temporary caution, demand for AI chips remains robust in the long term, and it is highly likely that they will re-accelerate capital expenditure once the plan is implemented.
Foundries such as TSMC and Samsung are also expected to receive further support for expanding their fabs within the United States.
4-2. Network Strengthening for Telecommunications and Carriers
AT&T and Verizon continue to invest in infrastructure, including 5G and next-generation wireless networks. Regulatory easing under the Action Plan is expected to streamline the acquisition of new spectrum and the deployment of small cells (microcells).
4-3. Benefits for the Renewable Energy Sector
Anticipating increased power consumption by data centers, infrastructure investment projects such as grid reinforcement, battery storage, and green hydrogen are on the rise. Attention will also be focused on related stocks.
4-4. Investor Perspectives and Risks
Immediate Impact vs. Long-term Perspective: It is expected to take about two to three years for regulatory easing and investment incentives to yield actual results, so caution is required regarding short-term stock price fluctuations.
Geopolitical Risk: While easing export controls on China may occur, it could also invite retaliatory measures from China or lead to intensified competition with emerging nations.
Regulatory Headwinds: It is also necessary to keep an eye on the movements of the Federal Congress and federal courts, as well as the risk of policy changes by the next administration.
Conclusion
The White House AI Action Plan is a multi-faceted policy package covering rapid data center construction, energy infrastructure development, and the promotion of open source. On the other hand, the earnings results of major tech companies are by no means uniform, and in the short term, semiconductor inventory adjustments and regulatory risks are shaking stock prices. Overall, while investment opportunities in AI infrastructure are expanding, discerning between actual demand and inventory, as well as assessing regulatory and geopolitical risks, will become even more critical in corporate strategy and investment decisions. Moving forward, it will be necessary to closely monitor the specific implementation status of the Action Plan and how it is reflected in the capital expenditure and earnings of each company.
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