Microsoft and Alphabet both rent computing power to AI labs and hold stakes in them, but this quarter Microsoft gained while Alphabet lost: Microsoft shares rose about 2% after hours, while Alphabet fell nearly 10%. OpenAI paid Microsoft $10 billion in the quarter ended September, about 11% of its $92 billion revenue, but unpaid OpenAI bills rose to about $7 billion and Microsoft's backlog slipped to about $677 billion. Alphabet's holdings, including about 14% of Anthropic and a stake in SpaceX, produced a nearly $9 billion loss that cut earnings by $0.55 a share to $2.12. Alphabet spent $51 billion on data centers and equipment and burned about $9 billion in free cash flow for a second straight quarter, funding the gap with $29 billion of bonds and $12 billion of new shares. Google Cloud revenue doubled to about $31 billion, and its backlog rose to $561 billion from $514 billion.
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artificial intelligenceearningscloud computingGOOGLMSFT
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Related tickers and likely impact
GOOGL
• NeutralAlphabet Inc. (Class A)
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Communication Services |
| Industry | Interactive Media & Services |
| Market cap | $4.0T |
| Close on 10/28/2026 | 325.61 |
| Change that session | +1.57% |
MSFT
• NeutralMicrosoft
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Systems Software |
| Market cap | $3.9T |
| Close on 10/28/2026 | 530.83 |
| Change that session | -0.09% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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