Chevron, ServiceNow and Nasdaq finance chiefs say AI projects must prove their worth before getting funded. They spoke on a panel at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara on Tuesday. Chevron's chief financial officer, Eimear Bonner, said AI "has got to compete for capital" and cannot be "a science experiment." She wants a clear path to value and results that reach the bottom line. ServiceNow's Gina Mastantuno said CFOs must also weigh the cost of falling behind rivals. The company expects $500 million in savings this year, largely from using its own products. Nasdaq's Sarah Youngwood sorts investments by time horizon and tracks AI metrics such as coding speed, client retention and token costs.

Chevron is the better dividend stock to hold for 20 years, according to an analysis by TIKR, which compared it with Coca-Cola. Chevron yields 3.4% against Coca-Cola's 2.5%. It raised its dividend 5.8% a year from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2025, versus 4.5% for Coca-Cola. Chevron's dividend takes 51% of free cash flow, against 77% for Coca-Cola, whose free cash flow fell short of its dividend in fiscal 2024 and 2025. Chevron's net debt is 0.56x EBITDA, against 1.6x for Coca-Cola. At those growth rates, $10,000 in Chevron would pay about $12,240 over 20 years, against about $7,812 for Coca-Cola. The main risk is oil prices. Chevron's 2030 targets assume lower commodity prices than today's.

Chevron and Occidental Petroleum offer investors different bets on energy in 2026. Chevron is a fully integrated giant; Occidental focuses on exploration and production, with a push into carbon capture. In FY 2025, Chevron's revenue fell about 4.6% to nearly $184.4 billion, with net income near $12.3 billion and free cash flow of about $16.6 billion. Occidental's revenue dropped about 20.3% to nearly $21.6 billion, with net income of about $2.4 billion and free cash flow near $4.1 billion. Occidental has the edge on valuation, with a forward P/E of 9.4x against Chevron's 12.7x. It also posted a five-year average operating margin of 38%, versus 16.5% for Chevron. Chevron offers a 3.4% dividend yield and 39 straight years of increases. Occidental yields 1.8%.