Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are projected to spend 650 billion dollars on capital expenditures in 2026, up about 60 percent year over year. The bulk of the funds will be poured into building data centers and acquiring the hardware needed to power AI infrastructure, as the companies race to dominate the still-developing market for generative AI tools.
According to a Bloomberg calculation, Amazon leads with 200 billion dollars, followed by Alphabet with 185 billion, Meta with up to 135 billion and Microsoft at 105 billion. Collectively, this exceeds the combined 2026 capex forecasts of 21 leading US industrial firms, including automakers and defense contractors, who are expected to spend ‘just’ 180 billion dollars.
It’s unclear, however, whether big tech’s appetite for compute can be satisfied. Even though TSMC and memory makers have signaled capacity increases, it will take time for these expanded or new fabs to come online. ASML, too, has indicated that the industry will likely be scrambling for chips in the near term.
