AI Capex Hit $230 Billion in One Quarter, More Than Big Tech Earned From Operations

AI capex at Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle reached $230.4B in the September 2026 quarter, up 118% in a year and 116% of the cash their operations generated. Over 12 months they spent $691B. Since ChatGPT launched they have spent $1.41 trillion, and they have signed $1.28 trillion of leases that have not started yet.

Most AI capex coverage adds up guidance figures from earnings calls. We built this tracker from the cash flow statements instead: every quarterly purchase of property and equipment that these companies reported to the SEC since 2019, set against their operating cash flow, revenue and depreciation, with the September 2026 quarter taken from filings and earnings releases published October 21 to 29, 2026. Our cloud computing statistics report compares this spending with cloud revenue. This page goes deeper on the capex itself: who is spending, how it is funded, what the companies promised and what is still to come.

How much is big tech spending on AI capex?

The five companies paid $230.4B for property and equipment in July to September 2026, against $105.8B a year earlier. Amazon spent the most, $77.3B in one quarter, more than double its $35.1B a year before. Over the last 12 months the total was $691B, up 93%, with Oracle growing fastest at 176%. In the first nine months of 2026 alone they spent $560B, already more than the $412B they spent in all of 2025.

Cash paid for property and equipment, quarterly, from SEC XBRL filings (Amazon: purchases of property and equipment before proceeds and incentives). Year-to-date filings differenced into quarters. Oracle’s fiscal quarters (ending February, May, August, November) are placed in the calendar quarter they mostly overlap. Hover a quarter for the split; on a phone, scroll the chart sideways.

The chart shows the turn. From 2019 through the third quarter of 2022 these companies spent $414B over 15 quarters. In the 16 quarters since ChatGPT’s launch on November 30, 2022, they spent $1.41 trillion: Amazon $460B, Alphabet $316B, Microsoft $286B, Meta $226B and Oracle $119B. Spending actually dipped in 2023, to $154B from $158B, before rising 55% in 2024 and 72% in 2025.

The last eight quarters

Amazon’s September 2026 quarter is from its October 29 earnings release (Exhibit 99.1); its 10-Q had not been filed. Oracle rows show the fiscal quarter ending in the middle month (Q3 2026 is June to August 2026). Every quarter since 2019 is in the download.

By calendar year

*2026 is January to September (Oracle: December 2025 to August 2026).

How much of this is AI?

None of the five reports AI capex as a separate line, so every figure on this page is company-wide. The companies do describe the mix. Microsoft said on its October 28 call that roughly three quarters of its quarterly capex went to short-lived assets, primarily CPUs and GPUs, including higher memory and storage costs. Alphabet said about 65% of its third-quarter technical infrastructure spending was servers and networking equipment and 35% was data centers. Meta says its 2026 capex supports “our AI efforts and core business”. Amazon’s total also pays for fulfillment and logistics, so it overstates Amazon’s AI spending more than the others.

The ratio dashboard: capex is eating the cash flow

Capex has grown much faster than the businesses paying for it. In 2019 the five spent 36% of their operating cash flow and 10% of their revenue on property and equipment. In the 12 months to September 2026 those shares were 95% and 36%. Amazon and Oracle spent more on capex than they generated from operations over the 12 months. In the September quarter alone that was true of Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle; Microsoft was the only one below 100%, at 68%.

Trailing 12-month ratios, Q4 2019 to Q3 2026 (Oracle to August 2026). Shared 0% to 180% scale. Hover for each quarter.

12 months to September 2026 (Oracle to August 2026). Free cash flow here is operating cash flow minus cash capex, the same definition Alphabet uses; it ignores finance lease payments. CoreWeave, a GPU cloud specialist, is shown for contrast and excluded from all totals; its latest filing covers the quarter to June 2026.

The free cash flow squeeze

Put together, the five companies produced $201B of free cash flow in the 12 months to September 2025. In the 12 months to September 2026 that fell to $33B, even though operating cash flow rose to $724B. In the September quarter combined free cash flow was -$31.8B, the only negative quarter in our series.

Operating cash flow minus cash capex, five companies combined, by quarter. Red bars are negative.

The gap is being filled with borrowing and stock sales. Amazon took in $115.1 billion from long-term debt in the first nine months of 2026, Alphabet $85.2 billion from debt issuance and Meta $24.91 billion from a notes offering in May. Oracle raised $19.9 billion by selling common stock through an at-the-market program in its June to August quarter, when its capex was $28.5B against $23.1B of operating cash flow.

Guidance vs actual: three of four raised their 2026 forecasts

Each company has given a 2026 capex figure and revised it as the year went on. Alphabet raised its range twice, from $175 to $185 billion in February to $195 to $205 billion in July. Meta raised and narrowed its range three times, from $115 to $135 billion to $135 to $145 billion. Amazon moved from about $200 billion to about $220 billion. Microsoft’s calendar 2026 figure went down, from about $190 billion in April to about $170 billion in October, but not because it planned to build less: CFO Amy Hood attributed about $15 billion of the cut to an accounting change that moves future data center leases from finance leases (counted in capex) to operating leases (not counted), and the rest to delayed third-party capacity deliveries.

Bars: each guidance range as stated on the date shown (single-point figures drawn as a short bar). Solid bar: spending January to September 2026 on the same definition the company uses for its guidance. Sources in the table below.

Implied October to December spending is the guidance (range ends) minus spending through September. Amazon’s implied figure uses gross purchases of property and equipment; net of proceeds and incentives ($172.2B through September) it would be about $48B. Microsoft’s spending to date is its own quarterly capex figure including finance leases, as stated on its calls ($31.9 billion, $41 billion and $45.2 billion); its cash paid for property and equipment was lower in each of those quarters ($30.9 billion, $35.8 billion and $39.4 billion).

The arithmetic holds two surprises. Alphabet’s unchanged range requires $63B to $73B in the December quarter, against $51.4B in September, a step up of at least 23%. Amazon is the reverse: after $77.3B in the September quarter, its full-year figure of about $220 billion leaves roughly $44B for October to December. Oracle, the one company with a completed guidance year, guided $50 billion for its fiscal 2026 and spent $55.7B, 11% more. Microsoft missed its own near-term figure: it guided its September quarter to over $50 billion including the lease reclassification and reported $45.2 billion, citing delayed third-party capacity.

The depreciation wave is just starting

Capex reaches the income statement slowly, as depreciation spread over the useful life of each asset. Property and equipment depreciation at the five companies totaled $138B over the four quarters to June 2026 (the latest quarter all five have reported), up 44% from $96B. Over the same period they spent $566B on capex, 4.1 times their depreciation. When spending runs that far ahead of depreciation, depreciation keeps climbing for years even if capex stops growing.

Depreciation of property and equipment as tagged in each company’s XBRL filings (Microsoft: depreciation expense from its property and equipment note, quarterly since fiscal 2025; Amazon: through June 2026, as its September 10-Q was not yet filed). Capex / depreciation uses the same four quarters.

The companies are telling investors to expect it. Alphabet’s CFO said on October 28 that the increase in technical infrastructure investment “will continue to weigh on the P&L in the form of higher depreciation expenses and related data centers’ operation costs such as energy.” Its 10-Q puts depreciation at $22.0 billion for the first nine months of 2026, up from $15.1 billion. Asset lives matter for the timing. Alphabet says its servers and networking equipment generally have useful lives of six years; Oracle’s 10-Q gives six years for its servers and networking equipment. Microsoft extended the useful lives of its data centers and office buildings from 15 to 25 years from the start of fiscal 2027, which spreads that part of the cost more thinly. A rough sense of scale: if 65% of Alphabet’s $51.4B September quarter went to servers depreciated over six years, that one quarter of server spending adds about $5.6B a year to depreciation once in service, against $28.0B of total Alphabet depreciation in the last four quarters.

The capex not counted yet: $1.28 trillion of signed leases

Cash capex is only part of the commitment. All five companies disclose leases they have signed, mostly for data centers, that have not commenced and so are not yet on their balance sheets or in their capex. In the latest 10-Qs those future lease payments total $1.28 trillion, up from $376B a year earlier. Microsoft reports $364.6B, Meta $355.7B and Oracle $288.0B. Meta’s figure is 6.1 times what it reported a year earlier.

Undiscounted future lease payments for leases signed but not commenced, as stated in each company’s 10-Q. Amazon’s figure is from its June 2026 10-Q, the latest it has filed. Oracle describes them as “additional lease commitments, substantially all related to data center arrangements”. Lease terms run up to 26 years (Alphabet’s disclosure), so these totals are not comparable dollar for dollar with a year of capex.

Leases are not the only off-balance-sheet commitment. Alphabet’s 10-Q reports $802.1 billion of multi-year commitments, mostly long-term supply agreements “to secure future production capacity for technical infrastructure and inventory components,” valued at the maximum contractual volumes and prices. Microsoft notes that finance leases count in its capex when they commence; it reported $7.4 billion of them in the September quarter, on top of $39.4 billion of cash spending.

What this means for MSPs

Hardware is tight and expensive. The companies on this page are bidding for the same GPUs, CPUs, memory and storage your clients buy, in far larger volumes. Microsoft said in April that about $25 billion of its calendar 2026 capex reflected higher component pricing, and in October that its spending includes “higher memory and storage costs”. Our trackers of RAM prices and SSD prices show what that has done to the parts in servers and laptops. Quote hardware with short validity windows, order refresh projects earlier than usual, and explain to clients that they are buying from the same component supply as the five biggest spenders on this page.

Cloud capacity is still rationed in places. Microsoft said on its October 28 call that customer demand “continues to exceed available supply,” and Alphabet said it started using third-party compute capacity at the end of the third quarter because of supply constraints. For clients planning GPU workloads or large migrations, secure reservations or capacity commitments before the project starts, and keep a second region or provider in the design.

Depreciation is a cost that has to be recovered. With depreciation growing 44% a year and capex running 4.1 times depreciation, the providers have a large and rising cost base to recover from customers. We have not tested whether that drives list prices, so treat it as a reason to review commitments and renewals each quarter rather than a forecast. Rightsizing and commitment-discount reviews are easy to justify to clients now.

Power is part of the build. Alphabet bought Intersect, a renewable energy developer, and included it in its capex guidance; Alphabet and Meta both describe their unstarted leases as data centers and energy infrastructure. Our data center statistics show how much of US electricity data centers already use, and our AI energy consumption ledger tracks Google, Microsoft and Meta’s own electricity use. For clients in colocation or with on-premises racks, confirm power availability and pricing in writing before committing to dense GPU hardware.

Frequently asked questions

How much are big tech companies spending on AI capex in 2026?

Their own guidance adds up to about $730 billion for calendar 2026 at the midpoints: Amazon about $220 billion, Alphabet $195 to $205 billion, Microsoft about $170 billion and Meta $135 to $145 billion. The four spent $376 billion in cash capex in 2025, so the plan is close to double. Definitions differ slightly (Microsoft includes finance leases, Meta includes finance lease principal payments).

Is AI capex more than big tech’s cash flow?

In the September 2026 quarter, yes. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle paid $230.4B for property and equipment against $198.6B of operating cash flow, 116%. Combined free cash flow was -$31.8B, the first negative quarter since at least 2019. Over 12 months capex took 95% of operating cash flow, up from 64% a year earlier.

How much has big tech spent on capex since ChatGPT launched?

From October 2022 (ChatGPT launched on November 30, 2022) through September 2026, the five companies spent $1.41 trillion on property and equipment: Amazon $460B, Alphabet $316B, Microsoft $286B, Meta $226B and Oracle $119B.

Which company spends the most on AI capex?

Amazon: $77.3B in the September 2026 quarter and $215B over 12 months. Its spending includes warehouses and logistics as well as AWS data centers. Relative to its size, Oracle spends the most: its capex over the last four quarters was 105% of revenue.

What is hyperscaler capex?

It is the money the large cloud and internet companies pay for data centers, servers, network gear and land, reported as purchases of property and equipment in their cash flow statements. None of the five splits AI from other capex. Microsoft says roughly three quarters of its latest quarter’s capex went to short-lived assets, primarily CPUs and GPUs; Alphabet says about 65% of its technical infrastructure spending went to servers and networking equipment.

Will AI capex grow in 2027?

The companies say so. Alphabet expects its capex to increase significantly in 2027, Microsoft expects capex in its fiscal 2027 (to June 2027) to grow year over year, and Oracle expects fiscal 2027 capex to exceed fiscal 2026. Signed but not yet commenced leases, mostly data centers, reached $1.28 trillion across the five, 3.4 times the level a year earlier.

Methodology

References

1. SEC EDGAR application programming interfaces (XBRL company facts and submissions). Accessed October 2026.
2. Microsoft Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
3. Alphabet Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
4. Meta Platforms Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
5. Oracle Form 10-Q, quarter ended August 31, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
6. Amazon.com Form 10-Q, quarter ended June 30, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
7. CoreWeave Form 10-Q, quarter ended June 30, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
8. Microsoft Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
9. Alphabet Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
10. Meta Platforms Form 10-Q, quarter ended September 30, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
11. Oracle Form 10-Q, quarter ended August 31, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
12. Amazon.com Form 10-Q, quarter ended June 30, 2025. Accessed October 2026.
13. Amazon.com, third quarter 2026 results, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed October 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
14. Alphabet, third quarter 2026 results, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed October 28, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
15. Meta Platforms, third quarter 2026 results and 2026 capex outlook, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed October 21, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
16. Oracle, Q1 fiscal 2027 results, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed September 10, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
17. Amazon.com, fourth quarter 2025 results and 2026 capex outlook, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed February 5, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
18. Meta Platforms, fourth quarter 2025 results and 2026 capex outlook, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed January 28, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
19. Meta Platforms, first quarter 2026 results and capex outlook, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed April 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
20. Meta Platforms, second quarter 2026 results and capex outlook, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed July 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
21. Alphabet, fourth quarter 2025 results and 2026 capex outlook, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed February 4, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
22. Oracle, Q3 fiscal 2026 results and fiscal 2026 capex guidance, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, filed March 10, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
23. Microsoft FY27 Q1 earnings call transcript, October 28, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
24. Microsoft FY26 Q4 earnings call transcript, July 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
25. Microsoft FY26 Q3 earnings call transcript, April 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
26. Alphabet Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, October 28, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
27. Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings call transcript, July 22, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
28. Alphabet Q1 2026 earnings call transcript, April 29, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
29. Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings call transcript, February 4, 2026. Accessed October 2026.
30. OpenAI, Introducing ChatGPT, November 30, 2022. Accessed October 2026.