News · Yahoo Finance

The $500 Billion Question: Can Google Cloud’s Massive AI Backlog Outrun Its Mind-Boggling CapEx Boom on Oct. 28?

Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) reports third-quarter results after the close on Wednesday, October 28. Google Cloud’s backlog stands at $514 billion, and its 2026 CapEx guidance is $195–205 billion. Last quarter, Google Cloud revenue rose 82% to $24.77 billion and its operating margin widened to 35.6% from 20.7%, but CapEx rose 100% to $44.92 billion and free cash flow was negative $5.86 billion, the first time ever. To fund the spending, Alphabet raised about $70 billion in equity and debt and suspended buybacks. The article says the key question is how quickly the backlog turns into revenue and cash as CapEx keeps rising.

Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.

Read the original on Yahoo Finance ↗

Keywords

GOOGLcloud computingAI investmentearningsartificial intelligence

Open a keyword to see other news on the same topic.

Related tickers and likely impact

GOOGL

▲ Likely positive

Alphabet Inc. (Class A)

Relevance: medium

MarketUS stocks
SectorCommunication Services
IndustryInteractive Media & Services
Market cap$4.3T
Close on 10/23/2026320.25
Change that session-1.22%
GOOGL price, forecasts and signals →

Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.

Related news

  • Will Alphabet Stock Soar After Oct. 28? History Offers an Answer That’s Strikingly Clear.

    Alphabet is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the market closes on Oct. 28, and the article notes the stock advanced in the two weeks following three of its last four quarterly reports. Google advertising made up 68% of the company's $119 billion second-quarter revenue, while Google Cloud revenue rose 82% to more than $24 billion on enterprise AI demand. Capital expenditures were about $44 billion in the quarter, with 60% going to servers and 40% to data centers and networking. Investors have worried about rising capex, and Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta plan to spend more than $700 billion this year on AI. The stock has climbed about 7% so far this year.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ GOOGLGOOGLearningsAI investment
  • Why Is Alphabet (GOOGL) Pushing Gemini 4 Argon Into Enterprise Workflows Worldwide?

    Alphabet has rolled out its Gemini 4 Argon AI model globally, targeting coding, science and accounting workloads. Google reports the model reaches benchmark-leading accuracy in several scientific domains and in finance automation tasks. The release is aimed at enterprise users who need consistent AI output for software development, research and complex financial processes. The article frames the launch within a bigger question: whether Alphabet's heavy spending on data centers, custom chips and cloud tools will turn into durable demand for Gemini and Google Cloud, and how it stacks up against Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. It also notes that capital intensity and legal scrutiny remain major risks.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ GOOGLGOOGLartificial intelligencecloud computing
  • Alphabet Solves the AI Infrastructure Bottlenecks Competitors Can’t Buy with Debt

    The author argues Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has an edge by owning its TPU chips, power, private fiber networks and multimodal training data, while rivals must rent them. Google Cloud revenue in Q2 2026 rose 82% to $24.77 billion, and operating income climbed 30.38% to $40.77 billion. The article cites a trailing P/E of 14, debt-to-equity of 0.14, and a 5% quarterly dividend increase to $0.22, and compares these with higher P/E ratios at Microsoft and Amazon. Risks noted include Q2 capital expenditures of $44.92 billion, which pushed free cash flow to -$5.86 billion, long-term debt rising to $98.2 billion, and $49.6 billion raised in equity. After the stock fell 7.16% over the week to $324.22, the author says they bought more shares.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ GOOGLGOOGLcloud computingartificial intelligence
  • Google CEO Admits Cloud Business Is Sacrificing Revenue to Win AI Race

    Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai says Google is giving up potential Cloud revenue to prioritize AI research, even as customers struggle to secure computing capacity. Google Cloud revenue rose 82% to $24.8 billion in the second quarter.

    Yahoo Finance·▼ GOOGLGOOGLcloud computingartificial intelligence
  • If Alphabet Does This on Oct. 28, the Stock Could Skyrocket

    Alphabet reports third-quarter results on October 28, and the author argues Google Cloud revenue growth could be the catalyst that sends its stock sharply higher. The stock is up only about 7% this year after topping 25% in early May, and it is trailing the S&P 500. Google Cloud revenue grew 82% in the second quarter, accelerating from 63% in the first quarter and 48% in the fourth quarter of 2025, well ahead of Microsoft Azure's 43% and AWS's 37%. Growth is fueled by AI demand and Alphabet's sales of its TPU chips to some clients, with most of that revenue expected in 2027, while Alphabet plans capital expenditures of $195 billion to $205 billion this year. The author considers the stock fairly valued at 27 times operating income, in line with peers, and says triple-digit cloud growth could drive the share price much higher.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ GOOGLGOOGLcloud computingearnings
  • Alphabet Stock Slipped After Q2 Earnings. Here's What Investors Need to See in Q3.

    Alphabet shares fell about 6% after its second-quarter report, despite revenue rising 24% to $119.8 billion and Google Cloud revenue jumping 82% to $24.8 billion. Investors are growing impatient with heavy AI spending and want evidence of returns, especially after Alphabet raised its full-year capex forecast by $15 billion to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion. Quarterly capex reached $44.9 billion, pushing free cash flow to negative $5.9 billion. The author says the third-quarter report on October 28 is an opportunity to prove the investments pay off, with two areas to watch: Google Cloud's growth and the custom TPU chip business, which began recognising direct chip sales revenue in the second quarter but does not report it separately.

    Yahoo Finance·▼ GOOGLGOOGLearningscloud computing

Related markets

US stocks →

Latest news

  • Grayscale's New Zcash ETF Has Gathered $1 Billion in Assets in Just 30 Days. Here's Why Investors Are So Bullish on Zcash.

    ZEC is up 149% year to date as of Oct. 22, while most major cryptocurrencies have lost value in 2026. Grayscale launched its Zcash ETF (ZCSH) on Aug. 25 and gathered more than $1 billion in its first 30 trading days. The bullish case rests on demand for financial privacy: about 29% of ZEC is now held in shielded addresses, up from about 12% at the start of 2025, and supply is capped at 21 million ZEC. Risks include use of Zcash to launder stolen funds in September and October, possible regulatory scrutiny, and a critical Orchard pool vulnerability disclosed in June that has since been patched. The author argues the ETF's 2.5% management fee ($25 per year per $1,000 invested) is a sizable premium over purchasing ZEC directly through an exchange, and says ZEC is highly volatile and should be only a small portfolio position.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ ZEC/USDTcryptoETFZEC
  • Meet Wall Street's Newest Major Stock Split: It Has Soared 1,730% Since Its 2012 IPO, and There Is Plenty of Upside Left

    Meta Platforms announced a stock split with its third-quarter results, creating a non-voting Class C stock with one new share for each existing share, which the company says will help raise capital without diluting CEO Mark Zuckerberg's voting control. Revenue rose 26% year over year to $64.6 billion and EPS reached $3.83, up 265%, while operating income fell 37% to about $13 billion because of a $9.89 billion legal charge; excluding that charge, it would have risen 11%. The charge relates to a settlement of up to $18 billion over 10 years with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general over lawsuits about harm from its social media platforms. Daily active people rose 3% to 3.64 billion, and more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada have set up the Muse AI agent, with about 25% using it on any given day. The article says Meta's AI push could diversify its revenue, though its core advertising business still generates most of it.

    Yahoo Finance·METAearningsartificial intelligence
  • Chamath: “$0.70-75 of Every Dollar” of AI Spend Is VC Money. The Real Winners Are Already Publicly Traded

    Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya estimates that 70 to 75 cents of every dollar spent on AI right now comes from AI companies that are unprofitable and funded by venture capital, since 1% of companies account for 90% of AI spending and 80% of that comes from unprofitable VC-backed firms. Much of that money goes to renting compute from Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet. Steve Eisman says about 70% of the hyperscalers' AI revenue comes from Anthropic and OpenAI, and Citadel founder Ken Griffin has said he thinks AI is a bubble. Amazon's capital spending rose from $52.7 billion in 2023 to $132 billion in 2025, and Alphabet's from $32.3 billion to $91.5 billion. The author argues that the bubble risk sits with the AI labs, while Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are already public and profitable, and says next week's earnings reports will test whether cloud growth holds up.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ NVDA• MSFTartificial intelligenceAI investmentventure capital
  • Amazon’s AWS Has Already Sold “a Good Chunk” of 2028 Capacity

    On an Andreessen Horowitz podcast on Oct. 23, 2026, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS capacity for 2027 is largely sold out and a good chunk of 2028 is sold as well, though Amazon has not disclosed the contracted capacity or backlog figures behind the phrase. AWS revenue rose 37% to $42.2 billion in Q2 2026, and Amazon has disclosed more than $225 billion in future Trainium revenue commitments. However, Amazon plans to spend about $220 billion on capex in 2026, trailing 12-month free cash flow was a $7.6 billion outflow, and much of the booked capacity goes to AI labs whose long commitments could be renegotiated if their funding tightens. Amazon closed at $248.00 on Oct. 23, with a market cap of about $2.68 trillion, and its Q3 report is due Oct. 29, 2026.

    Yahoo Finance·▲ AMZNcloud computingdata centersartificial intelligence
  • 1 , 318 Micron Technology , Inc . $MU Shares Bought by Lake Street Private Wealth LLC

    Lake Street Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) by 43.4% in the third quarter, to 4,352 shares worth $4,635,000, according to its 13F filing. MU opened at $877.55 on Friday, below its 12-month high of $1,255.00, with a market capitalization of $992.88 billion. For the latest quarter, Micron reported EPS of $33.42 versus a $31.77 consensus and revenue of $54.23 billion versus $51.33 billion, up 379.1% year over year. Erste Group raised its FY2028 EPS forecast to $201.26 from $199.05 and maintained a Buy rating, while the filings show extensive insider selling.

    tickerreport.com·Micronsemiconductorsearnings
  • Precedent Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 1 , 116 Shares of Invesco QQQ $QQQ

    Precedent Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Invesco QQQ (NASDAQ:QQQ) by 87.6% in the third quarter, according to a 13F filing with the SEC, bringing its holdings to 2,390 shares worth $1,768,000. Institutional investors hold 44.58% of the fund, and QQQ opened at $704.40 on Friday, within a 1-year range of $555.60 to $762.86. The latest quarterly dividend was $0.7514 per share, or $3.01 annualized with a 0.4% yield, down from the previous $0.8135. Technology stocks led a Nasdaq rebound, but QQQ faced pressure from renewed worries that massive AI capital expenditures may not generate adequate returns.

    themarketsdaily.com·QQQNasdaqETF

All news →

Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo

Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.