AI Capex Tracker: Hyperscaler Capital Spending by Quarter (2026)

Hyperscaler capex is the money the largest cloud companies spend on data centers, servers, chips, networking gear and land. Each company reports it in the investing section of its cash flow statement, and that line is the figure this tracker uses. In the July to September 2026 quarter, Amazon spent $77.3 billion, Alphabet $51.4 billion, Microsoft $39.4 billion and Meta $33.9 billion, per their 10-Q filings (see the chart and table below).

Every one of the four at least doubled its spending from a year earlier except Meta, which grew 80%. Amazon's quarter rose from $54.2 billion in Q2 to $77.3 billion in Q3, the largest single-quarter jump in this table. Oracle, whose fiscal quarters end a month earlier, spent $28.5 billion in June to August 2026, more than three times the $8.5 billion of a year before.

Added together, the four spent $201.9 billion in Q3 2026, up 107.6% from $97.3 billion in Q3 2025 and up 22% from the previous quarter (a Walnut calculation from unrounded filing figures). The year-over-year growth rate has risen in each of the last three quarters, from 64.0% in Q4 2025 to 80.5% in Q1 2026, 87.0% in Q2 and 107.6% in Q3 (see the chart below).

Over the first nine months of 2026 the four spent $496.7 billion, 93% more than the $257.4 billion of the same period in 2025 and already above the $376.1 billion they spent in all of 2025. Over the trailing four quarters, combined capex was $615.4 billion.

Each company updated its outlook on its October earnings call or release. Amazon wrote that it "continue[s] to expect 2026 cash capital expenditures to be approximately $220 billion" (October 29, 2026). Alphabet's CFO said its "full-year 2026 CapEx guidance range of $195-$205 billion" was unchanged and that capex will "increase significantly in 2027" (October 28, 2026 call). Meta now anticipates "$135-145 billion, narrowed from our prior outlook of $130-145 billion" (October 21, 2026).

Microsoft's CFO Amy Hood said on October 28, 2026 that "for the calendar year, spend should be approximately $170 billion due to the 3P capacity delays", and that capex in the October to December quarter will be over $50 billion (Microsoft call). Adding the midpoints gives roughly $730 billion for 2026, a Walnut calculation that mixes definitions: Microsoft's figure includes finance leases and Meta's includes principal payments on them (see the table below).

Alphabet has spent $132.0 billion through September, so its $195-205 billion range implies $63.0-73.0 billion in Q4 2026, against $51.4 billion in Q3 (a Walnut calculation on the same purchases-of-property line). Meta's spending on its own guidance basis, including $2.8 billion of finance lease principal, was $85.8 billion through September, which implies $49.2-59.2 billion in Q4.

Amazon's $220 billion is described as cash capital expenditures; Amazon nets proceeds from property sales and incentives out of its free cash flow, and those proceeds were $3.5 billion through September. On that net basis it had spent $172.2 billion through Q3, which implies about $48 billion in Q4, below its $77.3 billion third quarter. Amazon did not say whether its definition of the $220 billion matches that line.

The four companies spent 41.5 cents of every revenue dollar on capex in Q3 2026, up from 23.6 cents a year earlier (Walnut calculation). Meta is the most capital-intensive at 52.5% of its $64.6 billion revenue, followed by Microsoft at 42.7%, Alphabet at 40.3% and Amazon at 38.3% (see the table below).

Oracle sits far above the others: its June to August 2026 capex of $28.5 billion was 147% of its $19.3 billion revenue for the quarter.

Combined capex was 115% of the four companies' operating cash flow in Q3 2026, up from 61% a year earlier, so as a group they spent more than their operations brought in (Walnut calculation). Amazon spent $77.3 billion against $42.4 billion of operating cash flow (182%), Alphabet $51.4 billion against $42.3 billion (121%) and Meta $33.9 billion against $32.8 billion (104%).

Microsoft is the exception, at 68%. Its operating cash flow was $58.0 billion and it reported free cash flow of $18.6 billion for the quarter. Alphabet reported free cash flow of negative $9.1 billion, and Amazon's trailing twelve-month free cash flow was an outflow of $42.4 billion, which Amazon attributed to a $94.8 billion year-over-year increase in net purchases of property and equipment that "primarily reflects investments in artificial intelligence" (Amazon release).

With capex above operating cash flow, the difference comes from borrowing, share sales, leases and cash on hand. Amazon's proceeds from long-term debt were $48.1 billion in Q3 2026 and $115.1 billion in the first nine months of the year. Alphabet's proceeds from debt, net of costs, were $29.0 billion in Q3 and $85.2 billion year to date. Both figures come from the companies' cash flow statements.

The first week of November brought another round: Microsoft issued $25.0 billion of notes on November 4, Oracle $10.0 billion of notes plus 86.2 million new shares the same day, Meta $15.0 billion of notes on November 5 and Alphabet €6.0 billion of euro notes the same day, per their 8-K filings (see the table below). In October Meta also priced a $25.0 billion forward sale of Class A stock and $12.5 billion of mandatory convertible preferred stock, and in its Q3 release it said a new share class would give it "the ability to finance its growth".

FactSet calculated that incremental debt covered 32% of these five companies' capex in the twelve months before June 2026, up from 9% in fiscal 2024, and put their lease commitments not yet on the balance sheet at about $820 billion (FactSet Insight, July 23, 2026). FactSet also reported that Alphabet priced an $84.75 billion equity raise in June 2026, including a $10 billion private placement with Berkshire Hathaway. Those three figures are FactSet's and were not re-derived from filings here.

Cash purchases understate the build-out at companies that lease data centers and servers. Microsoft said it recognizes "the full principal value of finance leases in capex at the time of lease commencement", and that its July to September 2026 capex was $45.2 billion, of which $7.4 billion was finance leases. Cash paid for property and equipment was $39.4 billion. Microsoft counts capex when assets are recorded, so the two figures differ by the timing of payments.

Microsoft's finance lease liabilities were $71.0 billion on September 30, 2026, up from $54.4 billion a year earlier, per its 10-Q. Meta's principal payments on finance leases were $964 million in Q3 2026, which is why its headline $34.91 billion is above the $33.94 billion cash line.

Microsoft's cash additions to property and equipment were $39.4 billion in the quarter ended September 30, 2026, its fiscal Q1 2027, up 103% from $19.4 billion a year earlier. Including finance leases, capex was $45.2 billion, and Hood said "roughly three quarters" of it went to short-lived assets, mainly CPUs and GPUs.

Hood said some third-party capacity deliveries expected in the quarter were delayed, which is why calendar 2026 spending should be about $170 billion. On the demand side, Azure revenue grew 48% and commercial remaining performance obligation rose 73% to $677 billion, per the Microsoft release.

Alphabet's purchases of property and equipment were $51.4 billion in Q3 2026, up 114% from $24.0 billion a year earlier and up from $44.9 billion in Q2. The CFO said about 65% of technical infrastructure spending in the quarter went to servers and networking equipment and 35% to data centers.

Google Cloud revenue rose 103% to $30.7 billion in the quarter, per the Alphabet release, and Alphabet's 2025 capex of $91.4 billion is on course to more than double in 2026 under its $195-205 billion guidance.

Amazon's purchases of property and equipment were $77.3 billion in Q3 2026, up 120% from $35.1 billion a year earlier, and $175.7 billion for the first nine months of the year. That nine-month figure is already above the $131.8 billion Amazon spent in all of 2025.

AWS sales grew 39.3% in the quarter, which Amazon called its fastest growth in nearly five years, to a $184 billion annualized run rate. Amazon has the widest gap of the group between capex and cash generated, with Q3 operating cash flow of $42.4 billion against $77.3 billion of purchases.

Meta's capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, were $34.91 billion in Q3 2026; the cash purchases line alone was $33.9 billion, up 80% from $18.8 billion a year earlier. Its 2026 outlook is $135-145 billion on the broader definition, against $72.2 billion spent on that basis in 2025 (Walnut calculation: $69.7 billion of purchases plus $2.5 billion of principal payments).

Meta said that beyond 2026 it expects "to continue investing aggressively to support both our core business and emerging AI initiatives". Meta also raised the most outside money of the group between late October and early November 2026, with common stock, mandatory convertible preferred, dollar notes and euro notes.

Oracle reports capex on a fiscal year that ends May 31. In fiscal Q1 2027 (June to August 2026) its capital expenditures were $28.5 billion, up from $8.5 billion a year earlier, and free cash flow was negative $5.4 billion, per the Oracle release. Oracle also reports a "net cash outlay for capital expenditures" of $18.0 billion for the quarter, after customer prepayments and other financing tied to the spending.

In June, Oracle said it expects capital expenditures of up to $95 billion in fiscal 2027, with customer repayments covering up to $25 billion of that, and planned to raise about $40 billion in debt and equity, according to Reuters. Its remaining performance obligations were $664 billion at the end of August. FactSet notes S&P cut Oracle to BBB- on July 9, 2026, one notch above speculative grade.

Much of the hyperscalers' spending ends up as NVIDIA revenue. NVIDIA's data center segment brought in $89.0 billion in the quarter ended July 26, 2026, up 117% from a year earlier and up 18% from the prior quarter, and NVIDIA said hyperscale revenue "more than doubled" year over year (NVIDIA CFO commentary). Data center revenue has grown every quarter since April 2025's $39.1 billion (see the chart below).

The two series do not match dollar for dollar. Capex also pays for buildings, land, power equipment and other companies' chips, and NVIDIA sells to AI clouds, model makers and governments as well as the big four. NVIDIA guided to $108.0 billion of total revenue, plus or minus 2%, for the quarter ended October 25, 2026, and its purchase commitments rose to $279 billion, mostly for memory.

A hyperscaler is a company that runs cloud data centers at very large scale and rents out computing power, storage and AI services. The usual US list is Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure) and Alphabet (Google Cloud), with Meta included in AI capex totals because it builds data centers of the same size for its own apps, and Oracle increasingly included for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Totals published elsewhere differ because of who is counted and which line is used. This tracker keeps the four calendar-quarter companies in the combined figure and shows Oracle separately, and it uses each cash flow statement line as reported, not company-adjusted figures.

Microsoft's figure is "Additions to property and equipment". Alphabet, Amazon and Meta report "Purchases of property and equipment", and Oracle reports "Capital expenditures". These are cash amounts paid in the quarter. They exclude assets obtained through finance leases, which Microsoft and Meta add back in their own headline capex.

Quarterly 10-Q cash flow statements are year-to-date, so where a company did not report a quarter on its own, the quarter is the difference between two year-to-date totals. Every combined total, growth rate and ratio on this page is a Walnut calculation from unrounded figures in millions, taken from SEC EDGAR and checked against each company's earnings release.

This page is updated after each earnings round. The next update follows the October to December 2026 results, which Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta typically report in late January and early February 2027. NVIDIA reports its October quarter on November 17, 2026 (NVIDIA), and Oracle reports its fiscal Q2 2027 in December; the NVIDIA and Oracle rows are refreshed when those land.

Figures as of November 8, 2026: hyperscaler data through the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Oracle through August 31, 2026, and NVIDIA through July 26, 2026.