Big Tech's capital expenditure over time

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Welcome back to The Pulse, where we dive into interesting AI stories and trends backed by data, all presented through simple visuals.

> Microsoft logged its largest-ever quarterly capex (~$35B), driven by AI data-center expansion

> but management signaled growth may moderate ahead due to project timing & lease variability

> Meta claimed 2026 spend will rise sharply as AI infrastructure & talent costs accelerate

> concern emerging that AI build-out growth could slow post-2025 as managements caution payoffs may take 2-3 years, even as absolute spending remains record-high

> record $102.35B quarterly revenue (+16% YoY) - Alphabet’s first ever $100B+ quarter

> search & other ads: $56.6B; Google Cloud: $15.2B (+34%) - key growth engine

> YouTube & display ads grew double-digits

> Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure demand surged (+34% YoY) - core driver

> heavy AI-focused data-center buildout fueling record $91-93B CapEx plan

> AI integration across Search, YouTube & Workspace credited for revenue momentum

> “other Bets” remain loss-making; core ads face mounting AI-chatbot competition

> Chinese AI chipmaker Cambricon up ~6× since Aug 2024 as a massive outlier vs global peers

> NVIDIA hits $5 trillion valuation, the first company ever to do so

> diverging AI equity momentum: explosive chipmaker gains in China/US vs steadier big-tech growth

> reinforces that AI’s biggest value creation concentrated in hardware (chips + data-centers) as opposed to software