Compute / Capex · Q3 2026
Who paid to build AI in Q3 2026.
Cash each hyperscaler paid for property and equipment in Q3 2026, from its own filing, beside the quarter before and the full-year guide it gave. Where a filing says capex leaves something out, the room says so too.
The capex roomFiled figures, never forecasts
- Paid
- $201.9B across 4 payers in Q3 2026, gross purchases of property and equipment.
- Against Q2 2026
- +25% for the 3 payers with both quarters on record ($120.1B → $150.6B).
- Biggest
- Amazon, $77.3B. $77.3B is 35% of the full-year guide; an even year would be $55.0B a quarter.
- Not yet in
- Every payer in the dataset has a Q3 2026 row.
Paid in Q3 2026
$201.9B
4 payers, gross purchases of property and equipment
Against Q2 2026
+25%
the 3 payers with both quarters: $120.1B → $150.6B
Hover or tap
A payer reads its quarter
Tap a copper column to hold it here.
- Amazon: $77.3B in Q3 2026, $54.2B in Q2 2026. $77.3B is 35% of the full-year guide; an even year would be $55.0B a quarter.
- Alphabet: $51.4B in Q3 2026. No guide on record to measure against.
- Microsoft: $39.4B in Q3 2026, $35.8B in Q2 2026. $39.4B is 22% of the full-year guide (the Q2 2026 guide; this quarter’s documents give none); an even year would be $43.8B a quarter. The guide counts finance leases and this quarter’s figure does not, so the pace reads low.
- Meta: $33.9B in Q3 2026, $30.1B in Q2 2026. $34.9B is 25% of the full-year guide; an even year would be $35.0B a quarter.
Payer by payer
Amazon AMZN · Q3 2026
$77.3B- Q2 2026
- $54.2B · +43%
- Guide
- about $220B of cash capex for 2026, held (29 Oct 2026)
- Pace
- $77.3B is 35% of the full-year guide; an even year would be $55.0B a quarter.
- Capex here is gross ($77.26B). Net of $1.38B of proceeds from sales and incentives it is $75.88B, the basis Amazon uses for its own cash-capex figures.
“Our AWS investment in functionality and infrastructure is working, with over 39% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 ($184 billion revenue run rate) and projected revenue growth rates of over 40% both in 2027 and in 2028”
Amazon Q3 2026 results, SEC 8-K →29 Oct 2026
Alphabet GOOGL · Q3 2026
$51.4B- Q2 2026
- Not in the dataset
- Guide
- None on record
- Pace
- No guide on record to measure against.
- The release carries no capex guide and the earnings call has not been read, so there is no guide to measure against yet.
“Google Cloud revenues grew 103%, powered by huge demand for our AI infrastructure and AI solutions. We’re also seeing strong demand for our TPU systems across a wide range of customers.”
Alphabet Q3 2026 results, SEC 8-K →28 Oct 2026
Microsoft MSFT · FY27 Q1
$39.4B- Q2 2026
- $35.8B · +10%
- Guide
- about $175B for calendar 2026, counting finance leases, held (29 Jul 2026)
- Pace
- $39.4B is 22% of the full-year guide (the Q2 2026 guide; this quarter’s documents give none); an even year would be $43.8B a quarter. The guide counts finance leases and this quarter’s figure does not, so the pace reads low.
- The 10-Q gives no quarter figure for finance leases and no guide; the call has not been read.
- Microsoft’s capex leaves out most datacentre leases. Its 10-Q lists $364.6B of datacentre leases signed but not yet started (commencing fiscal 2027 to 2034): a commitment, never added here.
Microsoft 10-Q, filed 28 Oct 2026 →28 Oct 2026
Meta META · Q3 2026
$33.9B- Q2 2026
- $30.1B · +13%
- Guide
- $135–145B for 2026 including finance-lease principal, midpoint shown, narrowed (21 Oct 2026)
- Pace
- $34.9B is 25% of the full-year guide; an even year would be $35.0B a quarter.
- Meta’s guide counts finance-lease principal, so its pace compares capex plus lease principal: $34.91B, as Meta states it.
“We hit major milestones this quarter toward delivering personal superintelligence for everyone - including launching Muse and Muse Wonder, our first frontier model”
Meta Q3 2026 results, SEC 8-K →21 Oct 2026
How the room is kept
- Capex is cash paid for property and equipment in the quarter, as each company’s cash-flow statement prints it. Quarters are calendar quarters.
- None of the four says how much of its capex is AI. The room shows all of it and never estimates a split.
- A guide is the company’s own full-year figure, a range’s midpoint where it gives a range. Where a quarter’s documents give none, the newest earlier guide is used and the room says which.
- Pace is the quarter’s spend on the guide’s own basis against the full-year guide. An even year is a quarter of it each quarter.
- Leases signed but not started are commitments, not capex, and are never added to it.
- Nothing on this page is a trade idea.