---
title: "Big Tech's quarterly capex hit US$202bn, more than its operations brought in"
summary: "Quarterly spending on property and equipment by Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, Q1 2024 to Q3 2026, set against operating cash flow and each company's 2026 guidance."
url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/big-tech-ai-capex-quarterly-line
format: Trend
desk: "Markets & the AI economy"
published: 2026-10-30
facts_checked: 2026-10-30
author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal)
tags: ["capex","AI infrastructure","data centres","free cash flow","Microsoft","Alphabet","Amazon","Meta","Oracle","earnings"]
cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/big-tech-ai-capex-quarterly-line.png
---

# Big Tech's quarterly capex hit US$202bn, more than its operations brought in

*Quarterly spending on property and equipment by Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, Q1 2024 to Q3 2026, set against operating cash flow and each company's 2026 guidance.*

Trend · Markets & the AI economy · By TechBag · Published 2026-10-30 · Facts checked 2026-10-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/big-tech-ai-capex-quarterly-line

The short version

- Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta paid US$201.9bn for property and equipment in the quarter to 30 September, more than double the US$97.3bn of a year earlier and 3.4 times the US$58.9bn of two years earlier.[10]
- Their operations brought in US$175.5bn of cash in the same quarter. It is the first of the eleven quarters we counted in which the four together spent more on building than their businesses generated. Microsoft alone still had cash to spare.[10][1]
- Their own guidance for 2026 adds up to about US$720–740bn. Central banks call the pace unprecedented and valuations stretched; the companies point to contracted backlog and expected returns. For a buyer, the facts on the record are scarce capacity and rising component costs.[12][4]

The four largest US cloud and platform companies spent US$201.9bn on property and equipment in the three months to 30 September, by our count from their filings, against US$175.5bn of cash from operations.[10] In 2024 that spending took about half of what their businesses generated; in the first nine months of 2026 it took almost all of it. The companies say what the money buys: chips, servers and the data centres that hold them, mostly for AI.[1][4]

## The line: eleven quarters, four companies

Amazon spent US$77.3bn in the quarter, up from US$35.1bn a year earlier. Alphabet spent US$51.4bn (US$24.0bn), Microsoft US$39.4bn (US$19.4bn) and Meta US$33.9bn (US$18.8bn).[10] Together, the first nine months of 2026 came to US$496.7bn, already a third more than the US$376.1bn they spent in the whole of 2025.[10]

**Figure: All four doubled their quarterly spending in two years or less; Amazon's rose most in the latest quarter**

*Cash paid for property and equipment per quarter, US$bn, calendar Q1 2024 to Q3 2026*

|  | Amazon | Alphabet | Microsoft | Meta |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Q1 24 | 14.9 | 12 | 11 | 6.4 |
| Q2 24 | 17.6 | 13.2 | 13.9 | 8.2 |
| Q3 24 | 22.6 | 13.1 | 14.9 | 8.3 |
| Q4 24 | 27.8 | 14.3 | 15.8 | 14.4 |
| Q1 25 | 25 | 17.2 | 16.7 | 12.9 |
| Q2 25 | 32.2 | 22.4 | 17.1 | 16.5 |
| Q3 25 | 35.1 | 24 | 19.4 | 18.8 |
| Q4 25 | 39.5 | 27.9 | 29.9 | 21.4 |
| Q1 26 | 44.2 | 35.7 | 30.9 | 19 |
| Q2 26 | 54.2 | 44.9 | 35.8 | 30.1 |
| Q3 26 | 77.3 | 51.4 | 39.4 | 33.9 |

Source: Company 10-Q and 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR XBRL data); Q3 2026 checked against each company's release or call · as of 30 October 2026 · Excludes finance leases. Microsoft's quarters are shown by calendar quarter (its fiscal year ends 30 June)

The chart counts cash paid, which leaves out assets taken on finance leases. On their own definitions, Microsoft reported US$45.2bn including US$7.4bn of finance leases, and Meta US$34.91bn including lease principal.[1][8] Oracle, whose quarters end a month earlier, is on the same line: US$28.5bn in the quarter to 31 August, against US$8.5bn a year before and US$2.3bn two years before.[9][10]

## What drives it, and the argument over it

**What the money buys.** Amy Hood, Microsoft’s finance chief, said on 28 October that “roughly three quarters of our capex was for short-lived assets, primarily CPUs and GPUs, including higher memory and storage costs”.[1] Alphabet’s Anat Ashkenazi put about 65% of its technical-infrastructure spending in servers and networking, with useful lives of six years, and the rest in data centres.[4]

**What they say comes next.** Alphabet’s 2026 range of US$195–205bn “remain unchanged”, and it expects capex “to increase significantly in 2027”.[4] The range was US$180–190bn after the April call and was raised in July, W.Media reported.[5][6] Amazon “continue[s] to expect 2026 cash capital expenditures to be approximately $220 billion”.[7] Microsoft expects calendar-2026 spending of about US$170bn, down from about US$175bn in July “due to the 3P capacity delays”, meaning third-party data-centre deliveries that slipped.[1][2] Meta narrowed its range to US$135–145bn from US$130–145bn.[8] Oracle’s release gives no full-year figure.[9]

TechBag countHow we added the guidance

US$195–205bn + US$220bn + about US$170bn + US$135–145bn = about US$720–740bn for 2026. The definitions differ: Microsoft and Meta include finance leases, Amazon guides “cash” capex, and Microsoft’s year is the calendar year, not its fiscal year. Treat the total as an order of size, not one clean number.

**Figure: In the September quarter the four spent US$201.9bn on property and equipment, more than the US$175.5bn their operations brought in**

*Combined cash paid for property and equipment vs combined net cash from operating activities, US$bn, Q1 2024 to Q3 2026*

|  | Capex | Op. cash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Q1 24 | 44.3 | 99 |
| Q2 24 | 52.9 | 108.5 |
| Q3 24 | 58.9 | 115.6 |
| Q4 24 | 72.3 | 135 |
| Q1 25 | 71.9 | 114.2 |
| Q2 25 | 88.2 | 128.5 |
| Q3 25 | 97.3 | 159 |
| Q4 25 | 118.6 | 178.8 |
| Q1 26 | 129.8 | 150.7 |
| Q2 26 | 165.1 | 171.8 |
| Q3 26 | 201.9 | 175.5 |

Source: Company 10-Q and 10-K filings (SEC EDGAR XBRL data); TechBag sum of Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta · as of 30 October 2026 · Excludes finance leases and Oracle

Company by company, the September quarter split. Microsoft had US$18.6bn of free cash flow left.[1] Alphabet was US$9.1bn short, its second negative quarter, and Meta US$2.1bn short on its own measure.[3][8] Amazon’s free cash flow over twelve months was minus US$42.4bn.[7] Oracle’s quarter was about US$5bn short, and US$11.4bn of its US$23.1bn operating cash flow was customers paying in advance for capacity to be built.[9] How the gap is being paid for is a separate story.

**Too much, or not enough?** The Bank for International Settlements wrote on 28 June that “a wave of optimism about AI spurred a surge in capital expenditure on AI infrastructure” and that “animal spirits about AI lifted stock valuations”.[11] The Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee wrote on 7 July that “this pace of investment is unprecedented historically”, that AI valuations “on some metrics” have “become more stretched”, and that the earnings forecasts behind them “are highly uncertain”.[12]

The companies answer with contracts and returns. Microsoft’s commercial remaining performance obligation is US$677bn, up 73%; Oracle’s is US$664bn.[1][9] Ashkenazi said Alphabet expects “an attractive ROIC that remains meaningfully above our cost of capital”.[4] Hood said, “We feel good that the return on every dollar of CapEx we’re spending, we’re confident in that”, and in July that if demand changes, “you just slow down” the chip spending, which has short lead times.[1][2] Andy Jassy projects AWS revenue growth “of over 40% both in 2027 and in 2028”.[7] We report both sides; we take neither.

## What it means for a buyer of cloud and AI services

**Capacity is short, by the sellers’ own account.** Alphabet began renting third-party compute at the end of the quarter “given the supply-constraint environment”; Oracle says AI demand “continues to grow faster than supply”; Microsoft said third-party capacity it expected in the quarter arrived late.[4][9][1]

**Components cost more.** Microsoft’s spending includes “higher component pricing” and higher memory and storage costs, and Amazon lists supply volatility “including for memory chips” among the risks to its guidance.[2][1][7]

**The largest buyers commit early.** Microsoft’s backlog has a weighted average duration of 2.3 years, and Oracle is taking prepayments for capacity it has not yet built.[1][9]

Our viewOur view: what to put in the contract

When a provider says demand is ahead of supply, the terms that matter are the ones about capacity and price over the term: capacity dates written into the order with a remedy if they slip, a cap on price changes at renewal, and no prepayment without a delivery schedule. These are buying terms, not a forecast of whether the spending pays off.

India: a share of the same spending

Microsoft opened India South Central in Hyderabad on 21 September, its fourth Indian cloud region, as part of a US$20.5bn commitment to the country, with more Azure and AI services to follow “as supported services become available”.[13] No company splits its capex by country, so there is no Indian figure on this line. For a buyer with data that must stay in India, check which AI services the Indian region runs today before planning around it.

**What to watch.** Oracle reports its quarter to 30 November next, in December. The four report the December quarter from late January; Alphabet says it will give detail on 2027 on that call, and Microsoft expects to spend “over $50 billion” in the quarter.[4][1] The line to watch is the one in the second chart: whether operating cash catches up with spending, or the gap widens.

How we did this

Figures as of 30 October 2026

Quarterly capex is “purchases of” or “additions to property and equipment” and operating cash is “net cash provided by operating activities”, both from the cash-flow statements in each company’s 10-Q and 10-K, read through SEC EDGAR’s XBRL data. Where a filing gives only a year-to-date total, the quarter is the difference between two year-to-date totals; where a later filing restated a quarter, we used the later figure. Amazon’s line is gross, before proceeds from sales and incentives. Finance leases are excluded for all four, so the chart sits below Microsoft’s and Meta’s own capex figures. Microsoft’s fiscal quarters are shown as calendar quarters. Oracle (fiscal quarters ending in February, May, August and November) is in the text, not the charts. The Q3 2026 figures were checked against the releases of Alphabet, Amazon and Meta and Microsoft’s call. Guidance is quoted from releases and the companies’ own call transcripts, except Alphabet’s July raise, which is from trade press. Not used: a reported Alphabet 2027 figure that appears in neither its release nor its call.

Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece.

Sources

1. [Microsoft, FY27 first-quarter earnings call transcript](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/events/fy-2027/earnings-fy-2027-q1) — 28 October 2026
2. [Microsoft, FY26 fourth-quarter earnings call transcript](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/events/fy-2026/earnings-fy-2026-q4) — 29 July 2026
3. [Alphabet, Q3 2026 earnings release (8-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204426000080/googexhibit991q32026.htm) — 28 October 2026
4. [Alphabet, Q3 2026 earnings call transcript](https://s206.q4cdn.com/479360582/files/doc_events/2026/Oct/28/2026_Q3_Earnings_Transcript.pdf) — 28 October 2026
5. [Alphabet, Alphabet announces proposed $80 billion equity capital raise (8-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000119312526257724/d83560dex991.htm) — 1 June 2026
6. [W.Media, Brendyn Lotz: AI infrastructure demand pushes Alphabet's 2026 capex guidance to US$205 billion](https://w.media/ai-infrastructure-demand-pushes-alphabets-2026-capex-guidance-to-us-205-billion/) — 23 July 2026 Trade press; reports the Q2 call.
7. [Amazon, Q3 2026 results (8-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872426000038/amzn-20260930xex991.htm) — 29 October 2026
8. [Meta Platforms, Q3 2026 results (8-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000162828026066700/meta-09302026xexhibit991.htm) — 21 October 2026
9. [Oracle, Q1 FY27 results (8-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1341439/000119312526387905/orcl-ex99_1.htm) — 10 September 2026
10. [SEC EDGAR, XBRL company facts from the 10-Q and 10-K filings of Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle](https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001652044.json) — filings dated 25 April 2025 to 30 October 2026 CIKs 789019, 1652044, 1018724, 1326801 and 1341439; quarterly values are TechBag's arithmetic.
11. [Bank for International Settlements, Annual Economic Report 2026](https://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2026e.htm) — 28 June 2026
12. [Bank of England, Financial Stability Report, July 2026](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/financial-stability-report/2026/july-2026) — 7 July 2026
13. [Microsoft Source Asia: Microsoft establishes India South Central region](https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/2026/09/21/ai-ambition-into-action-microsoft-brings-ai-ready-capabilities-across-its-india-cloud-infrastructure-establishes-india-south-central-region-as-a-strategic-hub-for-asia-and-global-south/) — 21 September 2026

Related on TechBag: [Microsoft Azure](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-azure), [Google Cloud](https://www.thetechbag.com/google/google-cloud), the [AWS hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/aws), and [what Alphabet’s quarter did to its shares](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/alphabet-search-below-half-worst-day).

**Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.

Go deeper on TechBag

- [Microsoft Azure](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-azure) — the cloud behind US$39.4bn of quarterly spending and a US$677bn backlog
- [Google Cloud](https://www.thetechbag.com/google/google-cloud) — the business Alphabet's US$195-205bn of 2026 capex is built for
- [The AWS hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/aws) — every AWS product TechBag covers, with dated claims