Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta committed $207.4 billion in investments in their latest published quarter. This acceleration, which the groups link to the development of artificial intelligence (AI), translates into a massive increase in spending on data centers, servers, GPUs, networks, memory, and storage.
- Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta invested $207.4 billion in one quarter.
- The companies link this surge mainly to artificial intelligence, but their accounting differs and none isolates its AI spending.
- Amazon and Alphabet more than doubled their spending, with most of Alphabet’s capex going to AI infrastructure.
- The four groups could reach about $730 billion in capital expenditures in 2026.
In the third quarter of 2026, Amazon committed $75.9 billion in cash capital expenditures, Alphabet $51.4 billion in CapEx, Microsoft $45.2 billion, and Meta $34.91 billion. However, the total requires a caveat: the four companies do not apply the same accounting definitions, and none publishes a line item allowing the isolation of all their ‘AI spending.’ The figures therefore measure investment programs, in which AI and the infrastructure deploying it now occupy a major place.
Amazon and Alphabet: Spending More Than Doubled
Amazon reports the highest quarterly amount in the sample. Its cash capital expenditures increased from $34.2 billion a year earlier to $75.9 billion, and the group forecasts approximately $220 billion for the entirety of 2026. According to its quarterly 10-Q report, these expenditures primarily reflect investments in technology infrastructure, most of which supports the growth of AWS, as well as additional capacity for the logistics network. Over twelve months, net property purchases reached $210.7 billion, an increase of $94.8 billion, a rise Amazon attributes mainly to its investments in artificial intelligence. The group does not break down the exact portion of the quarter dedicated to AI.
Andy Jassy believes that investments in cloud features and infrastructure ‘are paying off,’ as AWS revenue grows by 39.3% year-on-year.
At Alphabet, the link to AI is more explicit. The group indicates that the vast majority of its $51.4 billion CapEx was invested in technical infrastructure intended to support its AI investments. Approximately 65% of this spending relates to servers and network equipment, and 35% to data centers. Quarterly CapEx increased by about 114% year-on-year, from approximately $24 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Alphabet maintains its envelope of $195 to $205 billion for 2026 and anticipates another significant increase in 2027.
Microsoft and Meta: Compute, Servers, and Networks
Microsoft committed $45.2 billion in CapEx in its quarter ending in September. Approximately three-quarters of this amount corresponds to assets with a relatively short lifespan, primarily CPUs and GPUs, whose cost includes rising memory and storage prices. According to the source’s calculation, this proportion represents about $33.9 billion. The group explains that this equipment serves to enable its customers to build and scale their AI applications, while the remaining quarter concerns more durable assets, such as data centers. Microsoft forecasts over $50 billion in CapEx for the following quarter and approximately $170 billion for the calendar year 2026.
Meta committed $34.91 billion in CapEx in the third quarter, including principal repayments related to finance leases. The group invests notably in servers, data centers, and network infrastructure. Meta does not specify the portion of these amounts dedicated to AI, but a significant part of this infrastructure serves its internal needs, such as its platforms, recommendation systems, and advertising business. Unlike Amazon, Microsoft, or Alphabet, the group does not market a major cloud platform comparable to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
Nearly $730 Billion Forecast for 2026
For the full year, Amazon forecasts approximately $220 billion, Alphabet between $195 and $205 billion, Microsoft approximately $170 billion, and Meta between $135 and $145 billion. Taking the midpoints of the ranges, the four groups are heading towards approximately $730 billion in cumulative capital expenditures in 2026. This figure does not constitute a single ‘AI bill’ in the accounting sense, but it illustrates the scale of the computing capacity being sought, with spending concentrated on GPUs, CPUs, servers, networks, memory, storage, and data centers.
