The latest earnings from the U.S. tech hyperscalers underline how aggressively AI investment is reshaping their financial profiles.
Amazon delivered a strong first quarter, with revenue up 17% to $181.5bn, driven by a sharp 28% surge in AWS sales and continued momentum in advertising. Net income jumped to $30.3bn, boosted by gains from its Anthropic investment, though free cash flow tightened as Amazon accelerated AI‑related capital expenditure.
Alphabet reported a robust start to 2026, with first‑quarter revenue rising 15% to over $113bn and operating income up 16%, supported by broad‑based strength across Search, YouTube and Google Cloud. AI infrastructure demand remains a major driver, with Google Cloud revenue climbing 48% in the latest comparable quarter.
Meta posted one of the strongest sets of results, with revenue up 33% to $56.3bn and net income soaring 61% to $26.8bn, helped by a significant tax benefit. Ad impressions and pricing both increased, while capital expenditure remained heavy as Meta scales its Superintelligence Labs.
Microsoft continued its consistent outperformance, with quarterly revenue up 18% to $82.9bn and net income rising 23%. Its AI business surpassed a $37bn annual run rate, and Intelligent Cloud revenue grew 30%, underscoring Microsoft’s leadership in enterprise AI adoption.
Alphabet and Amazon lifted markets sharply, while Meta fell and Microsoft dipped.
Alphabet’s strong cloud‑driven beat triggered a 7% after‑hours jump. Amazon also rose, gaining around 1–3% as investors welcomed AWS acceleration despite heavy AI spending.
Meta slumped 7% after hours on surging capex concerns.
Microsoft slipped about 1%, reflecting cautious sentiment despite solid cloud growth.