Big Tech Earnings: Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon's CEOs

Four of the world's largest technology companies released quarterly earnings this week that show a race to build AI infrastructure at scale. 

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft each reported double-digit revenue growth alongside capital spending plans that run into tens of billions of dollars.

The results could suggest a reordering of the cloud computing market. 

According to the companies' filings, Alphabet's Google Cloud business grew faster than its competitors, while Meta announced the creation of a new division focused entirely on AI research.

Google Cloud accelerates past rivals

Google Cloud revenue reached US$20bn for the quarter, representing 63% growth year on year. 

According to Alphabet, this performance was driven by demand for its Gemini models and custom AI infrastructure, which now process more than 16 billion tokens per minute. This figure is up 60% from the previous quarter.

The company's backlog nearly doubled quarter on quarter to US$460bn. This backlog figure tracks contracted future revenue that has not yet been recognised in financial statements.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, says: "2026 is off to a terrific start. Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business. This was our strongest quarter ever for our consumer AI plans, driven by the Gemini App. 

“Overall the number of paid subscriptions has now reached 350 million, with YouTube and Google One being the key drivers. Gemini Enterprise has great momentum with 40% quarter on quarter growth in paid monthly active users. 

“And, finally, I'm pleased to see Waymo surpass 500,000 fully autonomous rides a week. These outstanding results are built on our differentiated, full stack approach. It's really exciting to see how our AI investments are delivering value for our users, customers and business."

Amazon builds custom chip business

Amazon Web Services grew 28% to reach US$37.6bn in sales. According to Amazon, this represents the fastest growth rate for AWS in nearly four years.

The company's custom AI chips, Graviton and Trainium, have reached a US$20bn annual revenue run rate. According to Amazon, these chips are growing at triple-digit percentages year on year.

Amazon now offers its own chips alongside NVIDIA GPUs and hosts models from OpenAI and Anthropic. 

This approach has been characterised in some industry analysis as positioning the company as a neutral provider across different AI platforms.

The expansion came with reduced cash generation. Free cash flow fell to US$1.2bn from US$25.9bn a year earlier as the company spent US$59.3bn on property and equipment, primarily for AI data centres.

Andy Jassy, Amazon President and CEO, says: "AWS is growing 28% (our fastest growth in 15 quarters) on a very large base. We're in the middle of some of the biggest inflections of our lifetime, and we're well positioned to lead."

Meta creates superintelligence division

Meta reported revenue of US$56.3bn, up 33% year on year. This was the highest top-line growth rate among the four companies.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO, has created Meta Superintelligence Labs, a new division dedicated to AI research and development. The company raised its capital expenditure outlook for 2026 to US$145bn to support AI capacity.

Operating margin remained at 41% despite the increased spending. According to Meta, ad impressions increased 19% during the quarter.

Mark says: "We had a milestone quarter... with the release of our first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs. We're on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people."

Microsoft faces margin pressure

Microsoft Cloud revenue grew 18% as the company continued to scale its Azure platform and Microsoft 365 Copilot offering. 

However, cloud gross margin fell to 68% as infrastructure costs increased.

The company recorded a US$3.1bn loss related to its investments in OpenAI. This loss reduced net income for the quarter.

Microsoft remains the primary distributor of enterprise AI tools through its integration of OpenAI technology into Microsoft 365 and Azure products. According to the company, its AI business has reached a US$37bn annual revenue run rate, up 123% year on year.

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, wrote on LinkedIn: "We are focused on delivering AI infrastructure and solutions that empower every business to eval-max their outcomes in this agentic computing era. 

“Our AI business surpassed a US$37bn annual revenue run rate, up 123%. We are at the beginning of one of the most consequential platform shifts that will change the entire tech stack as we move from end-user driven workloads to workloads driven by end-users and agents. 

“This will drive TAM expansion and change the value creation equation across the entire economy."

Microsoft added one gigawatt of AI infrastructure capacity during the quarter. The company plans to double its footprint within two years.