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AI hyperscalers are expected to finish the year spending a whopping $828 billion on capex
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- Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and SpaceX all reported increased capex spending for Q3.
- There's no sign of slowing down, as company executives pledge to increase spending in 2027.
- Total spend for 2026 is forecast to be between $803B and $828B.
The hyperscalers are investing big to build out the physical backbone of the AI economy, and there's little sign of it slowing down.
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and SpaceX each reported a jump in capital expenditures in their latest earnings reports and are on track to spend between $803 billion and $828 billion this calendar year based on their guidance and disclosed fourth-quarter plans.
That figure covers broad capital spending, not just on AI. However, executives at each company have consistently pointed to AI infrastructure as the main driver in the spending surge. And they've all indicated that they plan to keep it up.
"We continue to expect our CapEx to increase significantly in 2027," Anat Ashkenazi, Alphabet CFO, said during its Q3 earnings call on Wednesday.
Here's a quick breakdown of some of the numbers:
$227 billion spent in Q3
Across all five companies, total spending for the third quarter of the calendar year was about $227 billion.
That represents about a 20% increase from the $188.5 billion the companies spent the previous quarter.
Amazon was the biggest spender, reporting $75.9 billion in cash capex. CFO Brian Olsavsky said on Thursday that the figure is primarily related to AWS and AI.
$556.2 billion spent in 2026 so far
Tallying up the total capex for all three quarters, the five hyperscalers have spent a whopping $556.2 billion so far in 2026.
Elon Musk's SpaceX remains the smallest spender in the group with a capex of $48.1 billion, but its CFO, Bret Johnsen, has indicated that it expects to ramp up spending by the next quarter.
Up to $272 billion forecast for Q4
Next quarter's implied capex forecast ranges between $247 billion and $272 billion.
The low end of the range assumes Meta and Alphabet hit the low ends of their full-year capex ranges.
Based on the implied fourth-quarter calculations, Amazon is the only company whose spending would decline from its third-quarter level.
CEO Andy Jassy said during Thursday's earnings call that Amazon expects to spend "meaningfully more in 2027."
Up to $828 billion forecast for 2026
Microsoft expects calendar-year capex of about $170 billion, down from its prior outlook due to delays in third-party data-center capacity. Amazon, meanwhile, maintained its forecast for about $220 billion in cash capex this year.
Even so, 2026 is turning out to be a huge spending year. Altogether, the companies are projected to spend between $803 billion and $828 billion this year.
The companies haven't shared concrete numbers for 2027 capex, but all signs point upward.
"Looking beyond 2026, we are still developing our budget and capacity plans for next year," Meta CFO Susan Li said during the company's earnings call on October 21, "but we expect to continue investing aggressively to support both our core business and emerging AI initiatives."
