Big Tech AI Capex Tops $650 Billion as Q1 Earnings Beats Pressure Bitcoin Risk Trade
Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet all topped Wall Street revenue forecasts on Wednesday. However, aggressive capital spending plans triggered after-hours selloffs and pressured tech-correlated risk assets.
Meta dropped 6% after raising its 2026 capital spending guide, while Microsoft and Amazon slipped on AI buildout costs. Alphabet was the lone gainer, lifted by cloud strength.
Big Tech Q1 Earnings Show Cloud Driving the Growth
Amazon reported first-quarter net sales of $181.5 billion, up 17% year over year. Earnings per share came in at $2.78 against a $1.62 estimate. The retailer guided second-quarter sales to between $194 billion and $199 billion, well above consensus.
Microsoft’s fiscal third-quarter revenue reached $82.89 billion, up 18% year over year, while operating income climbed to $38.4 billion. Microsoft’s AI business now runs at a $37 billion annualized revenue rate, up 123% year over year.
Meta posted $56.3 billion in revenue and earnings of $10.44 per share. The figure was boosted by an $8 billion one-time tax benefit.
Alphabet delivered $109.9 billion in revenue. Google Cloud sales of $20 billion topped Wall Street estimates by nearly $2 billion.
AI Capex Push Past $650 Billion Spooks Investors
The headline figure is the spending. Meta raised full-year 2026 capital spending guidance to between $125 billion and $145 billion. The company cited higher component costs and added data center capacity for AI workloads.
Combined 2026 capex across the four hyperscalers is on track to exceed $650 billion, according to industry estimates. Investors are increasingly worried that depreciation and operating costs will outpace near-term AI revenue contributions.
That tension explains the after-hours moves. Meta’s 6% slide and Microsoft’s 2.5% drop reflect a market more focused on payback timelines than on top-line beats.
Crypto Markets Watch the Risk-Asset Spillover
Bitcoin (BTC) has tracked the Magnificent 7 closely throughout 2026. Wednesday’s prints will help shape near-term sentiment across digital assets.
Cloud and AI strength may eventually support tokens tied to compute and decentralized infrastructure narratives.
However, persistent capex anxiety could drag tech-correlated risk assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), into May. Apple’s report and the PCE index are next on the calendar.
The coming sessions will show whether investors treat this $650 billion spend as discipline or as overreach.
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