How big is the AI capex wave? The four biggest spenders, in their own filings

"Capex" is short for capital expenditure: money a company spends on things that last, such as buildings, servers and chips. For the largest cloud companies, most of it now goes on data centres, and much of that on the computing power that AI models need.

The cleanest way to measure it is the number each company reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its cash-flow statement: cash spent on property and equipment. Every figure below comes from those filings.

The headline numbers

• In their 2025 fiscal years, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta together spent $357.5bn.
• That is almost three times their 2021 total of $125.0bn, and about 65% more than in 2024 ($217.3bn).
• Spending dipped in 2023 ($140.1bn, down from $150.2bn in 2022). Every year since has been larger.

The four combined

Show the numbers

Values ($bn)	Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta
2021	125
2022	150.2
2023	140.1
2024	217.3
2025	357.5

Company by company

Amazon spent the most in 2025 ($131.8bn), followed by Alphabet ($91.4bn), Meta ($69.7bn) and Microsoft ($64.6bn in its year to 30 June 2025).

Capital spending by company, each fiscal year

• Microsoft
• Alphabet
• Amazon
• Meta

Show the numbers

Values ($bn)	Microsoft	Alphabet	Amazon	Meta
2021	20.6	24.6	61.1	18.7
2022	23.9	31.5	63.6	31.2
2023	28.1	32.3	52.7	27
2024	44.5	52.5	83	37.3
2025	64.6	91.4	131.8	69.7

2026 so far: already past last year

The latest quarterly filings, for the period to 30 September 2026, show the wave growing again:

• Alphabet spent $132.0bn in the first nine months of 2026, already more than its whole of 2025 ($91.4bn).
• Amazon spent $175.7bn in the same nine months, against $131.8bn for all of 2025.
• Meta spent $83.1bn, against $69.7bn for all of 2025.
• Microsoft, whose year ends on 30 June, spent $115.9bn in its year to June 2026, almost 80% more than the year before ($64.6bn), and $39.4bn more in July to September 2026.

January to September 2026 against all of 2025

• All of 2025
• January to September 2026

Show the numbers

Values ($bn)	All of 2025	January to September 2026
Alphabet	91.4	132
Amazon	131.8	175.7
Meta	69.7	83.1

Taken together, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta spent $390.8bn in the first nine months of 2026. That is more than all four companies spent in their full 2025 fiscal years.

What the companies expect for the whole of 2026

Each company gave an outlook with its results for July to September 2026. These are the companies' own words, not our forecast, and each one measures "capex" in its own way, so the figures are not a like-for-like comparison with the charts above.

• Amazon (29 October 2026): "We continue to expect 2026 cash capital expenditures to be approximately $220 billion."
• Alphabet (28 October 2026): its chief financial officer said the "full-year 2026 CapEx guidance range of $195-$205 billion" was unchanged.
• Meta (21 October 2026): expects 2026 capital expenditures "in the range of $135-145 billion", narrowed from $130-145bn. Meta's figure includes principal payments on finance leases, which the charts above do not.
• Microsoft (28 October 2026): its chief financial officer said that "for the calendar year, spend should be approximately $170 billion", with more than $50bn expected in October to December alone. Microsoft counts finance leases in its capex figure, and this outlook covers the calendar year, not its July-to-June financial year.

And 2027?

None of the four has put a number on 2027 yet. All of them point the same way:

• Alphabet: "We continue to expect our CapEx to increase significantly in 2027", with more detail promised on its next results call.
• Amazon: chief executive Andy Jassy said the company expects "to spend meaningfully more in 2027".
• Meta: still "developing our budget and capacity plans for next year", but expects "to continue investing aggressively".
• Microsoft: expects spending to speed up in the second half of its financial year, January to June 2027, but gave no full-year figure.

When the companies publish figures for 2027, this article will be updated with them.

What these numbers do and do not show

• Not all of it is AI. The filings report spending on property and equipment as one line. Amazon's includes warehouses and delivery networks as well as data centres, and none of the four splits out an exact "AI" figure in this line.
• Fiscal years differ. Microsoft's year ends on 30 June, so its "2025" is July 2024 to June 2025. The others follow the calendar year. The combined totals add each company's own fiscal year.
• Cash, not commitments. This is cash paid out in each period. Assets taken on through leases are reported separately, so this line is not the whole picture of the build-out.
• Restated years. Meta later revised its figures for 2021 to 2023. The charts use the figures as most recently reported.

The figures are pulled automatically from the SEC's own data service, and every chart lists the filings it comes from. When the companies publish new filings, the charts are rebuilt from source.