Alphabet is spending more cash than it generates: capital expenditures reached $51.4 billion last quarter, mostly for AI compute, and could keep rising in the fourth quarter and in 2027. The company raised $40 billion last quarter alone, fueling investor worries about overextension, and shares fell after its third-quarter earnings release. CFO Anat Ashkenazi said Alphabet expects ROIC to stay meaningfully above its cost of capital throughout the investment cycle, supported by its vertically integrated AI stack. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said server spending (about 65% of capex) pays back in under two years, and TPU systems in half that time, compared with nearly three years for Amazon. Analysts' average forecast sees free cash flow rising from about $50 billion to more than $300 billion by 2031, though it may drop more sharply in 2027.
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GOOGLAI investmentdata centerscloud computingNVDA
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Related tickers and likely impact
GOOGL
• NeutralAlphabet Inc. (Class A)
Relevance: medium
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Communication Services |
| Industry | Interactive Media & Services |
| Market cap | $3.5T |
| Close on 10/30/2026 | 279.76 |
| Change that session | -1.43% |
NVDA
▲ Likely positiveNvidia
Relevance: low
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Information Technology |
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Market cap | $5.1T |
| Close on 10/30/2026 | 204.81 |
| Change that session | -4.14% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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