Capital spending at Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta rose 87% in a year
Insight · By dibsresearch ·
In April–June 2026 the four spent $165.1 billion in cash on property and equipment, up from $88.2 billion a year earlier. Here is what they say it buys.
In April–June 2026, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta together spent $165.1 billion in cash on property and equipment. That is 87% more than the $88.2 billion they spent in the same months of 2025. Amazon spent $54.2 billion, Alphabet $44.9 billion, Microsoft $35.8 billion and Meta $30.1 billion. For Microsoft, these three months are the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2026.
Each figure is one line in the company’s cash flow statement: purchases of property and equipment, which Microsoft calls additions to property and equipment. Against April–June 2025, Microsoft’s spending more than doubled from $17.1 billion and Alphabet’s doubled from $22.4 billion. Meta’s rose 82% from $16.5 billion, and Amazon’s rose 68% from $32.2 billion.
Alphabet’s 10-Q says its spending went mainly to technical infrastructure: servers and network equipment, data center land, and building construction. On Microsoft’s call on 29 July, CFO Amy Hood said roughly two-thirds of the quarter’s capital expenditures went to short-lived assets, “primarily CPUs and GPUs.” Amazon’s earnings release says the $66.1 billion rise in its net spending on property and equipment over twelve months “primarily reflects investments in artificial intelligence.” Meta’s 10-Q says its 2026 spending will “support our AI efforts and core business.”
In the same quarter, sales at Amazon Web Services rose 37% to $42.2 billion, and Google Cloud revenue rose 82% to $24.8 billion. Microsoft’s Azure and other cloud services revenue rose 43%. Meta’s release of 21 October says its AI investments are already delivering “substantial incremental advertising revenue.”
On Amazon’s call on 30 July, CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon now expects about $220 billion of cash capital expenditures in 2026, up from about $200 billion, because of “the higher cost of memory.” He added: “But even at that amount, we will still not have enough capacity to meet all the demand we have in 2026, and I believe this dynamic will also be true in 2027 too.” Microsoft’s additions to property and equipment came to $115.9 billion in fiscal 2026, up from $64.6 billion. Its CFO said she expects capital expenditures to grow again in fiscal 2027, which began in July.
Meta is the first of the four to report July–September. It spent $33.9 billion on property and equipment in that quarter, up from $18.8 billion a year earlier. On 21 October it narrowed its forecast for 2026 capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, to $135–145 billion from $130–145 billion.
The cash line leaves out assets taken on through finance leases. Microsoft’s CFO put April–June capital expenditures including finance leases at $41 billion, against $35.8 billion paid in cash. Meta’s own measure, which adds principal payments on finance leases, came to $31.08 billion for April–June. In a Grid, you can put the four companies in the rows and ask each one’s filings the same question; every cell cites the document it was read from.