Las Vegas (Reuters) -Alphabet reiterated on Wednesday it would spend about $75 billion this year to build out data center capacity, doubling down on its generative AI bet even as the payoff remains unclear and a global trade war threatens to raise costs.

The investment would fund the chips and servers needed to burnish its core offerings, including Search, while supporting the development of AI services such as its Gemini model, CEO Sundar Pichai said at the annual conference for Google's cloud computing unit.

"The opportunity with AI is as big as it gets," he said.

Alphabet had outlined plans for its $75 billion outlay in February. The target was 29% higher than what Wall Street analysts had expected at the time.

Big Tech companies are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the country, but investors have been getting increasingly restless over the massive investments, demanding better returns.