capital-intensive

American  

[kap-i-tl-in-ten-siv] / ˈkæp ɪ tl ɪnˈtɛn sɪv /

adjective

1. requiring or using a very large amount of capital relative to the need for or use of labor.

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capital-intensive Cultural  

1. A term describing industries that employ relatively few laborers but that use expensive equipment. (Compare labor-intensive.)

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Etymology

Origin of capital-intensive

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

capital-intensive

On Wall Street, investors are concerned that rising interest rates will weigh on lofty tech valuations and raise borrowing costs for capital-intensive AI companies.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

In response, the company adopted the motto “Production is the product” and settled on a capital-intensive approach to developing chips aimed at bringing them to market as fast as possible.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Their goal is to secure the billions of dollars required for their capital-intensive projects to build artificial general intelligence, a broadly capable computer system that is smarter than humans at all cognitive work.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

Wall Street anticipates Oracle’s operating margins to compress by about 3 percentage points as the company’s business mix shifts toward OCI, a more capital-intensive part of the business.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026

The   development of an export market for natural gas is a bright spot for   future growth prospects, but improvement in the capital-intensive   hydrocarbons sector does little to reduce Egypt's persistent   unemployment.

From The 2005 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency