AI capex scoreboard 2026: Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Oracle

The four biggest US cloud and AI spenders (Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta) spent almost $172 billion on capital expenditure in the second quarter of 2026, according to one independent tracker, and their combined full year guidance now sits between $735 billion and $750 billion. Oracle is a fifth, smaller but fast moving spender, with capex guidance of $90 billion to $95 billion for its fiscal 2027, given on its September 2026 results call.

Those numbers are real, but they are also easy to misread. Companies count capital spending differently, report on different calendars and have started moving some of it off their own books. This post lays out each company's latest figures with the date and the source next to each one, explains the terms, and flags where the numbers disagree.

Nothing here is investment advice, and nothing here predicts what the companies will do next. Where a figure comes from a news report or an analyst rather than a company filing, the text says so.

Key numbers at a glance

All figures are in US dollars. The "as of" date is the quarter the company reported, and this post was checked on 19 October 2026. The third quarter reports from these companies are not out yet.

• Four company total, Q2 2026 (April to June): almost $172 billion, up 29 percent on the first quarter and 77 percent on the second quarter of 2025. Source: Platformonomics scoreboard, 31 July 2026 (analyst tally of company filings).
• Four company total, first half of 2026: just under $305 billion. Source: same scoreboard.
• Four company guidance for calendar 2026: over $640 billion in January, $695 billion to $725 billion in April, $735 billion to $750 billion in July. Source: same scoreboard.
• Amazon, Q2 2026: $54.2 billion of purchases of property and equipment, per Amazon's own release dated 30 July 2026. The scoreboard shows $54.77 billion because it adds finance leases.
• Amazon, 2026 outlook: about $220 billion, raised from about $200 billion. Source: Amazon call remarks, 30 July 2026, as summarised by MarketBeat.
• Microsoft, April to June 2026 quarter: $41 billion including finance leases, of which $35.8 billion was cash spending on property and equipment. Source: Microsoft call, 29 July 2026.
• Microsoft, calendar 2026: about $175 billion after a lease accounting change. Source: scoreboard, which reports the earlier figure as about $190 billion.
• Alphabet, Q2 2026: $44.9 billion. Source: Alphabet filing, 22 July 2026.
• Alphabet, 2026 guidance: $195 billion to $205 billion, raised from $180 billion to $190 billion.
• Meta, Q2 2026: $31.08 billion including finance lease principal. Source: Meta results, 29 July 2026.
• Meta, 2026 guidance: $130 billion to $145 billion. Meta spent $72.22 billion in 2025, per a TheNextWeb report.
• Oracle, quarter ended 31 August 2026: $28.5 billion of capex, per Oracle's release of 10 September 2026. Fiscal 2027 capex guidance of $90 billion to $95 billion, unchanged, comes from the results call as reported by ERP Today.

What "capex" means, and why companies count it differently

Capital expenditure, or capex, is money spent on things that last more than a year: land, buildings, servers, chips, networking gear. It is different from the running costs that appear on the income statement each quarter, such as salaries and electricity.

Three details change the headline number.

• Cash purchases versus leases. A company can buy a data centre outright, or it can lease one. A finance lease is treated like a purchase on credit, and many companies add the principal they pay on those leases into their capex number. An operating lease usually does not count as capex at all, even though the company is committing to years of rent.
• Short lived versus long lived assets. Servers and graphics chips are replaced in a handful of years. Buildings and power equipment last decades. Microsoft said about two thirds of its latest quarter went to short lived assets, mainly processors and graphics chips. Amazon's chief executive said servers and networking gear break even in under three years and are used for five to six years or more, while data centres are long lived.
• Calendars. Microsoft's fiscal year ends in June, Oracle's in May. Amazon, Alphabet and Meta use the calendar year. So "the second quarter" means April to June for most of them, but Microsoft calls that quarter its fourth, and Oracle's latest quarter ended in August.

So when two articles give different capex for the same company and quarter, the cause is usually one of these definitions, not a mistake.

How big is $172 billion, and how fast did the guidance move

The scoreboard author offers some comparisons that help with scale. The four companies' second quarter spending alone is more than their full year 2023 total of $155 billion. First half 2026 spending is just under $305 billion. Cumulative capex by the four since the author began tracking is over $1.9 trillion.

Guidance has moved up at every update this year, which is the clearest sign of how fast plans are changing.

• Four company total: over $640 billion in January, $695 billion to $725 billion in April, $735 billion to $750 billion in July. That is roughly 14 percent higher in six months, per the scoreboard.
• Amazon: about $200 billion in January and April, then about $220 billion in July.
• Alphabet: $175 billion to $185 billion in January, $180 billion to $190 billion in April, $195 billion to $205 billion in July.
• Meta: $115 billion to $135 billion in January, $125 billion to $145 billion in April, $130 billion to $145 billion in July.
• Microsoft: no single comparable series, because of the lease reclassification described below.

The same scoreboard reports that trailing twelve month free cash flow for the four combined fell 18 percent on the previous quarter and 24 percent on a year earlier. Amazon's was negative, Alphabet's quarterly figure was negative and Meta's was barely positive. In plain terms, these companies are now spending nearly everything their businesses generate and then some, which is why financing choices (debt, share sales, leases and partners) have become part of the story.

Company by company

Amazon

Amazon reported $54.2 billion of purchases of property and equipment in the second quarter, against $32.2 billion a year earlier, in its release on 30 July 2026. Over the trailing twelve months the figure was $173.0 billion gross, or $169.0 billion after proceeds and incentives. The Platformonomics scoreboard, which adds finance leases, puts the quarter at $54.77 billion. MarketBeat's call summary quotes $53.1 billion of cash capex. Three numbers, three definitions.

Two details stand out. First, the scoreboard says Amazon Web Services accounted for $48.6 billion of the quarter, more than 88 percent of Amazon's total, compared with about 44 percent on average over the last ten years. The online shop and logistics business is now a small part of the spending. Second, Amazon raised its 2026 outlook to about $220 billion from about $200 billion, and the chief executive attributed the increase to higher memory costs, as summarised by MarketBeat.

The cash picture is worth knowing. Amazon's own release shows free cash flow, which is operating cash flow minus capex, was an outflow of $7.6 billion over the trailing twelve months, against an inflow of $18.2 billion a year earlier. Operating cash flow for the same period was $161.4 billion.

Microsoft

Microsoft's April to June 2026 quarter was its fiscal fourth quarter. Capex including finance leases was $41 billion, up 69 percent on a year earlier. Finance leases were $5.6 billion and cash spending on property and equipment was $35.8 billion, per the call. For the full fiscal year to June 2026, additions to property and equipment were $115.9 billion, against $64.6 billion the year before, per Microsoft's results page.

The most confusing item in the whole scoreboard is Microsoft's calendar 2026 outlook, which moved from about $190 billion to about $175 billion. That looks like a cut. It is not, according to the company's own explanation on the call. Microsoft changed the assumed life of data centres and office buildings from 15 to 25 years starting in fiscal 2027, and said more future data centre leases would be classified as operating leases, which do not count as capex. The scoreboard author reads this as a reclassification with total spending unchanged. Microsoft also said capex for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 should exceed $50 billion, including the lease effect, and that fiscal 2027 capex would grow.

Microsoft said it added about 1 gigawatt of capacity in the quarter and expects to roughly double overall capacity in two years. A gigawatt is a billion watts of electrical load, roughly what a large power station produces.

Alphabet

Alphabet's filing shows capex of $44.924 billion for the second quarter, against $22.446 billion a year earlier, and $80.598 billion for the first half. Operating cash flow was $39.069 billion, so free cash flow for the quarter was negative $5.855 billion. Over the trailing twelve months free cash flow was still positive at $53.273 billion.

On the call, as summarised by MarketBeat, the finance chief said the "vast majority" of the quarter went to AI infrastructure, with about 60 percent on servers and 40 percent on data centres and networking. Guidance for 2026 rose to $195 billion to $205 billion, and management said capex will "increase significantly" in 2027 without giving a figure. She also said the company is "still in a supply-constrained environment" and plans to rent extra third party capacity in the third quarter as a bridge while its own sites are built.

A reported detail, from AI Weekly citing Quartz, is that Alphabet raised about $49.6 billion from a June share sale and $20.3 billion from senior notes during the quarter. That figure does not appear in Alphabet's earnings release, so treat it as reported.

Meta

Meta reported $31.08 billion of capex including finance lease principal, up 57 percent on the first quarter and 83 percent on a year earlier, per the scoreboard. Operating cash flow was $31.86 billion and free cash flow was $784 million, which is almost nothing. Cash and securities were $90.26 billion and long term debt was $83.66 billion, per the results summary.

Guidance for 2026 narrowed to $130 billion to $145 billion, up from $115 billion to $135 billion in January and $125 billion to $145 billion in April. The scoreboard notes that Meta is also using partners to build data centres, including a deal with BlackRock, so actual spending on Meta's behalf will be higher than reported capex. The next section explains how that works.

Oracle

Oracle's quarter ended 31 August 2026. Its release of 10 September 2026 shows capital expenditure of $28.5 billion, against $8.5 billion a year earlier, and free cash flow of negative $5.4 billion. Notes payable and other borrowings were about $125.3 billion at quarter end. The release also shows about $20 billion raised through an at the market programme, where a company sells new shares gradually into the market. Capex guidance for fiscal 2027 of $90 billion to $95 billion, unchanged, was given on the call and is reported by ERP Today; the release itself guides only on revenue, to at least $90 billion for the year.

Oracle's approach differs from the others. Oracle's release says it booked more than $30 billion of additional AI cloud contracts in the quarter and that, based on how they are structured, there is no incremental impact on its plans to raise capital. ERP Today reports the finance chief's explanation that most involve customers prepaying or bringing their own hardware. The release shows operating cash flow of $23.1 billion, including $11.4 billion of customer prepayments, and a net cash outlay for capex of about $18 billion after prepayments and other financing.

Spending that does not show up as capex

Meta's Hyperion campus in Louisiana is the clearest example. A joint venture holds the buildings, with Blue Owl owning 80 percent and Meta 20 percent. The venture issued bonds, and Meta is the tenant, with rent starting in 2029. A newsletter report dated 20 July 2026 says Meta confirmed the site will scale to 5 gigawatts with total investment above $50 billion, that the venture's debt is $27.3 billion rated A+, and that Meta gives guarantees on the lease. The article's own component figures do not reconcile cleanly, and earlier reports in 2025 gave different equity and debt splits, so treat the details as approximate.

The point for readers is simple. A company can have use of a gigawatt of data centre capacity without recording the building as its own capex. Meta also described a venture with BlackRock for a 1 gigawatt data centre in El Paso, Texas, per MarketBeat's call summary. Microsoft's lease reclassification and Oracle's customer-funded hardware work in the same direction. The reported capex total is a floor on what these companies are committing to AI, not a ceiling.

What is firm and what is uncertain

Firm, because it comes from a company filing or release:

• Oracle's $28.5 billion quarter, negative $5.4 billion free cash flow and $11.4 billion of customer prepayments.
• Amazon's $54.2 billion quarter and the negative trailing free cash flow.
• Alphabet's $44.9 billion quarter and negative quarterly free cash flow.
• Microsoft's $115.9 billion of additions to property and equipment for fiscal 2026.
• Meta's $31.08 billion quarter and its $130 billion to $145 billion guidance.

Less certain:

• Guidance totals. Adding the company guidance ranges as stated (Amazon about $220 billion, Alphabet $195 billion to $205 billion, Meta $130 billion to $145 billion, Microsoft about $175 billion) gives $720 billion to $745 billion. The scoreboard's $735 billion to $750 billion is slightly higher. The gap may come from the Microsoft basis; the scoreboard does not say.
• Meta's prior range. The scoreboard gives $125 billion to $140 billion in one place and $125 billion to $145 billion in another. Meta's own release says $125 billion to $145 billion.
• 2027. The scoreboard author calls roughly $1 trillion of combined 2027 capex plausible. That is an opinion, not guidance. Alphabet has only said "significantly" higher. Microsoft and Meta have said growth, without a number.
• Oracle's capex guidance. The $90 billion to $95 billion range comes from the call as reported, not from the release.

What to watch next

• Third quarter results. The four companies report their July to September quarters in the coming weeks. Each company posts its date on its investor relations page.
• Whether guidance rises again. It rose in January, April and July. Memory prices were named as one driver by Amazon.
• Free cash flow. Amazon is negative over the trailing year, Alphabet was negative in the quarter and Meta is near zero. Watch how each funds the gap: debt, share sales, leases or partners.
• Oracle's October investor day and next quarter. ERP Today lists these as upcoming checkpoints.
• Depreciation and useful life. Microsoft changed an estimate for buildings. Changes to server lives would matter more, because servers are the largest part of the spending.

Quick check

If your own software depends on any of these platforms, the practical step is to know what you run on them. Safeguard offers SBOM and dependency scanning, and a free scan at https://gold.safeguard.sh/scan.

For related reading, see what OpenAI has planned for compute, how Anthropic's compute commitments work and the AI chip market share guide. The companion posts in this series cover cloud AI revenue and backlog.

Sources

• Platformonomics, "Follow the CAPEX: Q2 2026 Scoreboard," 31 July 2026: https://www.platformonomics.com/2026/07/follow-the-capex-q2-2026-scoreboard/
• Amazon, second quarter 2026 results, 30 July 2026: https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2026/Amazon-com-Announces-Second-Quarter-Results
• MarketBeat, Amazon Q2 2026 earnings call highlights, 30 July 2026: https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/amazoncom-q2-earnings-call-highlights-2026-07-30/
• Microsoft, fiscal 2026 fourth quarter results page, 29 July 2026: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/earnings/fy-2026-q4/press-release-webcast
• Motley Fool, Microsoft Q4 2026 earnings call transcript summary: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/08/07/microsoft-msft-q4-2026-earnings-call-transcript/
• Alphabet, second quarter 2026 earnings release (SEC Exhibit 99.1): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000066/googexhibit991q22026.htm
• MarketBeat, Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings call highlights: https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/alphabet-q2-earnings-call-highlights-2026-07-22/
• AI Weekly, Alphabet Q2 summary: https://aiweekly.co/alerts/alphabet-q2-cloud-jumps-82-to-248b-capex-hits-449b
• Storage Newsletter, Meta fiscal Q2 2026 results, 30 July 2026: https://www.storagenewsletter.com/2026/07/30/meta-platforms-fiscal-2q26-financial-results/
• MarketBeat, Meta Q2 2026 earnings call highlights: https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/meta-platforms-q2-earnings-call-highlights-2026-07-29/
• TheNextWeb, Meta Muse Spark launch, April 2026 (source for Meta's 2025 capex): https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-muse-spark-msl-first-model
• Global Data Center Hub, Hyperion financing, 20 July 2026: https://www.globaldatacenterhub.com/p/meta-scales-hyperion-to-5gw-and-over
• Oracle, Q1 fiscal 2027 results release, 10 September 2026: https://investor.oracle.com/investor-news/news-details/2026/Oracle-Announces-Q1-Results-Driven-by-Triple-Digit-Growth-in-Cloud-Infrastructure-Revenues/default.aspx
• ERP Today, Oracle Q1 fiscal 2027 results, 11 September 2026: https://erp.today/oracle-q1-fy27-results-664b-backlog-ai-contracts/

Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.