A deep dive into Big Tech's Q1 2026 AI earnings — Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Google — and the B infrastructure race shaping the industry.
Google used its latest quarter to argue that AI is no longer just a capex story. Cloud revenue rose 63% past $20 billion, while core AI response costs in AI Overviews and AI Mode fell by more than 30% after the Gemini 3 upgrade.
Microsoft’s AI push is no longer a capex story waiting for payoff. In results released on April 29, the company said its AI business surpassed a $37 billion annual revenue run rate, while Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 40% and commercial remaining performance obligation jumped 99% to $627 billion.
Alphabet reported Q1 2026 revenue of $109.9 billion, up 22% year over year. Google Cloud surged 63% to $20.03 billion — its first $20B quarter — while net income jumped 81% to $62.6 billion. The stock rose 6% after the report.
Meta reported Q1 2026 revenue of $56.3 billion (+33% YoY), with net income rising 61%. But investors pushed the stock down 6–10% after Meta raised its full-year AI capex forecast to $125–145 billion, citing higher component costs and new data center buildouts.
Q1 2026 earnings reports from Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon reveal combined capital expenditures exceeding $725 billion for the year — nearly double last year's $410 billion — as the AI data center arms race accelerates.