Two of the world’s most valuable technology companies report quarterly results after the US market close today. The numbers will test whether enormous spending on artificial intelligence is turning into lasting profit.
Alphabet and Microsoft both publish figures on Wednesday, with Amazon following on Thursday. By one Reuters tally, the three cloud giants together hold close to $1.7 trillion in contracted backlog and could spend as much as $600 billion this year. The scale of those numbers explains why the reports carry such weight for the wider market.
The financing question comes to the fore
The earnings arrive days after Meta Platforms disclosed a record fundraising plan. On Monday the company said it intends to raise up to $95 billion in new equity. It has launched public offerings worth about $35 billion in common and convertible preferred stock. A separate at-the-market programme of up to $60 billion is due to begin after a new class of non-voting shares starts trading, which Meta expects in the first quarter of 2027.
Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom have expressed interest in buying up to $5 billion of Meta’s Class A shares between them. That has fuelled concern about a circular flow of capital, in which chip suppliers help finance one of their largest customers.
Meta’s own figures show why the money is needed. It reported negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion in the third quarter, compared with positive free cash flow of $10.63 billion a year earlier. At the end of September it held $82.45 billion in cash and securities against $80.92 billion of long-term debt. It has also lifted the bottom of its 2026 capital spending range to between $135 billion and $145 billion.
Analysts at William Blair said investors will keep questioning how such spending is funded. They also said the move underlines Meta’s confidence in long-term returns from the technology. Meta’s shares fell about 1.4% in early trading on Monday, then recovered ground on Tuesday.
What to expect from Alphabet
Analysts expect Alphabet to report third-quarter revenue of about $127.9 billion, roughly 25% higher than a year earlier, with earnings of about $3.00 a share. The focus will be Google Cloud, which grew 82% to $24.8 billion in the three months to June, the fastest pace among the big three providers.
Investors will want to know whether that momentum has held and whether it is turning into stronger profit. The company raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast in July to between $195 billion and $205 billion. Its shares have lagged the broader market this year, so the bar for reassurance is high.
What to expect from Microsoft
For Microsoft, which reports for its fiscal first quarter, forecasts centre on revenue of about $90.7 billion, up around 17%. Earnings are expected near $4.72 a share, up about 14%.
Microsoft Cloud revenue rose 27% to $59.3 billion last quarter, with Azure and related services growing 43%. Cloud gross margin was 65%, better than expected but lower than a year earlier. Higher depreciation as new data centres come online is the main threat to that figure.
Analysts will also listen for evidence that customers are expanding use of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and for any change in tone about its partnership with OpenAI.
Why the stakes reach beyond Silicon Valley
The results land on a day packed with market catalysts. The Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision at 2 p.m. Eastern, so traders will get an update on borrowing costs and on the companies financing the AI expansion within hours of each other.
The reaction elsewhere has already been dramatic. South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix reported record quarterly profit today, and chip stocks have rallied for three sessions. If Alphabet and Microsoft raise spending again without a matching jump in cloud revenue, some of that optimism could fade. Strong growth with controlled costs would reinforce the argument that demand for computing power still outruns supply.
As one strategist put it, the market is less interested in the headline earnings than in whether the capital being poured into data centres will translate into sustainable revenue. No single quarter will settle that question, but today’s reports will shape the debate heading into Amazon’s results and the year-end.
This article is for information and does not constitute investment advice.
