US Tech Giants Ramp Up AI Spending: 2026 Capital Expenditure Forecast to Exceed $700 Billion

As the race for artificial intelligence (AI) computing power intensifies, major U.S. tech companies are raising their capital expenditure guidance, channeling funds into AI servers, data centers, and in-house developed chips. According to the latest financial reports, Amazon (AMZN-US), Microsoft (MSFT-US), Alphabet (GOOGL-US), and Meta (META-US) are projected to spend nearly $750 billion in capital expenditures by 2026—far exceeding last year's $455.8 billion.

Amazon is leading in scale and ambition. CEO Andy Jassy stated during the earnings call that the imbalance between computing supply and demand is expected to persist until 2028, and announced an increase in annual capital expenditure to $220 billion. AWS, Amazon’s cloud division, delivered strong results in Q2, with revenue growing 37% year-over-year—the highest in 18 quarters. Its AI-related business has already achieved an annualized revenue of over $25 billion.

Microsoft and Alphabet are also making substantial commitments. Microsoft maintains its capital expenditure plan at approximately $190 billion, with quarterly capex rising 70% year-over-year, primarily to expand Azure compute clusters. Alphabet has raised its 2026 capex forecast range to $175 billion–$205 billion. Meta plans to spend $115 billion–$135 billion to accelerate data center construction, including supercomputing campuses in Texas and Louisiana.

Despite massive infrastructure investments, investors are scrutinizing whether these expenditures will translate into tangible returns. Forrester analyst Tracy Woo notes that Microsoft’s heavy investment is already yielding returns, helping drive a stock rebound. In contrast, Meta lacks a cloud business to monetize computing power externally and relies on advertising for AI monetization, resulting in a 91% year-over-year decline in free cash flow in Q2—raising market concerns over its 'burn rate.'

Meanwhile, Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi revealed that Google Cloud’s backlog exceeds $514 billion, indicating that the computing gap will remain difficult to close in the short term. Apple, while not building large-scale data centers, continues to invest in on-device AI chip development and faces challenges due to chip supply chain shortages.

This spending wave is significantly impacting upstream supply chains. Morgan Stanley observes that AI investment momentum is spreading from chip manufacturing to cloud providers and real-world applications. The construction of numerous data centers is straining GPU availability and power resources, even leading to competition with cryptocurrency miners for electricity.

In response to market volatility, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, views the recent tech stock selloff as an 'overreaction.' The firm emphasizes that shifts in the AI competitive landscape do not signal investment collapse; instead, cheaper AI will accelerate adoption across industries, ultimately driving higher overall demand for infrastructure.