AI Spending Lift: JPMorgan Boosts S&P 500 Target to 8,000

JPMorgan strategists lift their S&P 500 target to 8,000—about 3% above the prior close—driven by solid Q2 earnings and AI-capex payoffs from hyperscalers, as cloud growth and backlogs at Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft monetize AI spending. They forecast AI capex to account for well over half of the S&P 500’s total capex this year ($1.5 trillion), helping justify higher valuations as the market stays near record highs; other banks are bullish too, with year-end targets in the mid-7,800s and the broader earnings backdrop continuing to support gains.