The builders

The short version

Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle spent $230.4bn on property and equipment in the quarter to September. That is more than double a year earlier and 116% of the cash their operations brought in.¹ Their combined free cash flow for the quarter was −$31.8bn, the first negative quarter in a series going back to 2019.¹

Only Microsoft still comfortably pays its own way. The other four are filling the gap three ways. They are selling bonds: Meta is raising at least $20bn this week and Alphabet raised €6bn on Monday. They are issuing new shares: Oracle priced $20bn of stock and notes in a single day. And they are using joint ventures that keep the debt off their own books, as Meta has done in Louisiana and Texas.^2,3,4,5

The neoclouds are a more leveraged version of the same bet. They borrow against contracts with the hyperscalers and labs. Microsoft has committed more than $60bn to them, and Meta about $62bn to CoreWeave and Nebius alone.^6,7,8,9 In late October the Wall Street Journal reported that CoreWeave, Nebius and Nscale had been effectively shut out of the bond market, with only secured, contract-backed lending still available.¹⁰

That is the chain to watch. If a hyperscaler slows its spending, or a lab misses a payment, the neocloud loses revenue it has already borrowed against.

Capex and debt since 2018

Before the pandemic, the five spent about $66bn a year between them on property and equipment. Covid was the first step up: Amazon's spending more than doubled in 2020, the year online shopping surged. The second came after ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Combined spending dipped in 2023, then rose 51% in 2024 and 69% in 2025, to $378.7bn. In the first nine months of 2026, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta had each already spent more than in the whole of 2025.^{29,30,31,32,33}

OracleMetaMicrosoftAlphabetAmazon Capital expenditure each year, in billions of dollars. *2026 is January to September for Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, and the full fiscal year for Microsoft and Oracle.

Debt rose more slowly at first. Combined, the five owed $166bn in 2018 and $313bn at the end of 2025. Nine months later it is about $561bn. Alphabet's debt has gone from $12bn at the end of 2024 to $126bn, Amazon's from $69bn to $181bn in nine months, and Meta, which sold its first bonds in 2022, now owes $84bn. Microsoft is the exception: its debt has fallen every year since 2018.^{29,30,31,32,33}

Amazon

Capex $176bn Debt $181bn²⁹

2026 capex is January to September. Debt for 2026 is at 30 September.

Alphabet

Capex $132bn Debt $126bn³⁰

2026 capex is January to September. Debt for 2026 is at 30 September.

Microsoft

Capex $116bn Debt $40.3bn³¹

Fiscal years to June. Fiscal 2026 ended on 30 June 2026.

Oracle

Capex $55.7bn Debt $130bn³³

Fiscal years to May. Fiscal 2026 ended on 31 May 2026.

Bars: capital expenditure in the year

Line: debt at the year end

Shaded: 2020, the first Covid year

All five panels share one scale, so the bars and lines can be compared across companies.

Capex is purchases of property and equipment from each company's cash-flow statement, which leaves out assets acquired under finance leases. Debt is bonds, notes and loans, including the part due within a year, and leaves out leases. Microsoft's fiscal year ends in June and Oracle's in May; the other three report calendar years. Combined figures add each company's own year.

Hyperscalers

Quarter to 30 September 2026 (Oracle: to 31 August 2026). Twelve-month figures run to the same dates.

Company	Capex, latest quarter	Capex as share of operating cash, 12 months	Free cash flow, 12 months	Debt	Leases signed, not started	Our reading
Microsoft	$39.4bn¹	69%¹	+$60.0bn¹	Not compiled	$364.6bn¹²	Paying its way
Alphabet	$51.4bn¹	89%¹	+$19.7bn¹	$127.5bn¹²	$130.5bn¹²	Borrowing to build
Amazon	$77.3bn¹	128%¹	−$46.9bn¹	Not compiled	$164.9bn¹³	Spending more than it earns
Meta	$33.9bn¹	78%¹	+$28.6bn¹	$84.0bn¹²	$355.7bn¹²	Moving it off the books
Oracle	$28.5bn¹	161%¹	−$28.7bn¹	$125.3bn¹⁵	$288bn¹⁴	Most stretched

Free cash flow is operating cash flow minus cash spent on property and equipment, the definition Alphabet uses. It ignores finance-lease payments. "Not compiled" means we haven't yet taken a like-for-like figure from the filing.

Microsoft Paying its way

The only one of the five still covering its build-out from its own cash: free cash flow was +$18.6bn in the latest quarter. But it has signed the largest pile of leases that haven't started yet ($364.6bn, up from $329.1bn in June), and it rents more than $60bn of capacity from neoclouds rather than building it all itself.^6,16,17

Alphabet Borrowing to build

Free cash flow was −$9.1bn in the latest quarter, the second negative quarter running. Alphabet is now the biggest writer of credit support for other people's data centres: $48bn of backstops, with $27.7bn more agreed, and its five-year CDS has nearly tripled in a year to 91.6bp.^12,16,18

Amazon Spending more than it earns

The largest spender, with capex guided to about $220bn this year. Over twelve months it spent 28% more on property and equipment than its operations brought in. It is also a lab investor ($50bn into OpenAI, $18bn into Anthropic), and the FT reported talks to move about $8bn of Nvidia chips into a sale-and-leaseback vehicle.^19,20,21,22

Meta Moving it off the books

Free cash flow was −$2.1bn in the latest quarter. Meta has pioneered the joint-venture route: partners own 80% of its two largest campuses and carry the debt, while Meta guarantees up to $41.5bn of their value. S&P moved its outlook to negative on 30 October and forecasts free operating cash flow of −$22bn this year and −$71bn in 2027.^5,19,23

Oracle Most stretched

Spends $1.61 for every dollar its operations bring in. Its $664bn order backlog leans heavily on OpenAI, it is rated one notch above junk, and it raised $20bn of stock and bonds on 2 November. Its five-year CDS is 294bp, up from below 100bp a year ago.^1,4,15,18

Neoclouds

Quarter to 30 June 2026, the latest each has reported. Nscale is private and reports half-years.

Company	Revenue, latest quarter	Cash capex, latest quarter	Debt	Cash	Contracted revenue	Our reading
CoreWeave	$2.58bn¹⁵	$6.4bn¹⁵	$35.1bn¹⁵	$5.5bn¹⁵	~$104bn¹⁵	Leveraged and concentrated
Nebius	$0.58bn¹⁵	$5.7bn¹⁵	$8.5bn¹⁵	$8.0bn¹⁵	>$40bn¹⁵	Better funded, still early
IREN	$0.07bn¹⁵	$2.0bn¹⁵	$7.6bn¹⁵	$5.9bn¹⁵	$4bn a year¹⁵	Converting from bitcoin
Nscale	$0.14bn (half-year)¹⁵	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	$103.4bn¹⁵	Backlog far ahead of revenue

Contracted revenue is measured differently by each company (backlog, commitments, contracted value, or recurring revenue), so the figures aren't strictly comparable.

CoreWeave Leveraged and concentrated

The biggest neocloud. Debt rose 64% in six months, and interest took a quarter of revenue. Three customers supplied 72% of revenue; the largest contracts are with Meta (about $35bn across two deals) and OpenAI (up to $22.4bn). Nvidia is both a shareholder and a customer. Results are due on 10 November.^7,8,15,24,25

Nebius Better funded, still early

Holds almost as much cash as debt, having leaned on share sales, convertibles and customer prepayments. Its two anchor contracts are Meta (up to $27bn) and Microsoft (up to $19.4bn). Nvidia bought about 8.3% of the company for $2bn in March.^9,15,26,27

IREN Converting from bitcoin

A former bitcoin miner whose AI-cloud revenue only just overtook mining. Its build-out rests on a $9.7bn Microsoft contract and a $3.4bn Nvidia contract, funded with $6.3bn of convertible notes and $4.7bn of new shares.¹⁵

Nscale Backlog far ahead of revenue

Private, with an S-1 filed in September. It has $103.4bn of contracted value against $141m of half-year revenue and a $1.02bn loss. One Anthropic contract (up to $44.6bn) is 43% of that, and it requires Nscale to find financing for the GPUs. Microsoft has committed about $23bn.^6,15,28

What we're watching next

CoreWeave's results on 10 November. Whether debt is still growing faster than revenue, and whether it can raise money any way other than secured, contract-backed loans.^3,10,11
Meta's bond pricing. Where the final pricing lands against initial guidance, its first sale since S&P's negative outlook.³
Next year's capex guidance. Alphabet's finance chief has said 2027 spending will rise significantly. A cut by any of the five would be the first sign of a slowdown reaching the neoclouds.¹⁹
Leases moving onto the books. As buildings are handed over, the $1.3tn of signed-but-not-started leases becomes balance-sheet debt. See Off the books.

Sources

The Uptime Report: AI capex 2026: Big Tech spending tracker from SEC filings (30 October 2026)
AI Market Watch: 2 November 2026 (2 November 2026)
AI Market Watch: 3 November 2026 (3 November 2026)
Oracle (press release): Oracle announces pricing of $20 billion of common stock and senior notes (2 November 2026)
TokenPost (summarising Meta's Q3 2026 10-Q): Meta puts maximum exposure to two data center ventures at $68.4 billion (30 October 2026)
Introl: Microsoft's $60B neocloud bet (1 October 2026)
CoreWeave (SEC filing): Form 8-K: Meta order form, up to $14.2 billion through December 2031 (30 September 2025)
CoreWeave (press release): CoreWeave and Meta announce $21 billion expanded AI infrastructure agreement (9 April 2026)
Nebius (SEC filing): Form 6-K: commercial agreement with Meta, up to $27 billion (16 March 2026)
Dealroom News (summarising The Wall Street Journal): CoreWeave, Nebius and Nscale effectively shut out of the bond market as AI lenders tighten terms (31 October 2026)
CoreWeave (press release): CoreWeave announces date of third quarter 2026 financial results and conference call (27 October 2026)
CCIR Monitor: Big Tech's $3.0 trillion in signed AI commitments (from the Q3 2026 10-Qs) (1 November 2026)
Amazon (SEC filing): Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026 (30 October 2026)
Oracle (SEC filing): Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 31 August 2026 (11 September 2026)
BlockWest Research: Neocloud scorecard, Q2 2026: backlog, capex and debt at the GPU clouds (1 October 2026)
TrendForce: Alphabet revenue jumps 25% but free cash flow deficit widens to US$9.1B; Microsoft bucks cash flow pressure (29 October 2026)
Microsoft (SEC filing): Form 10-K, fiscal 2026: leases that have not yet commenced (30 July 2026)
Axios: Bond investors have cooled to AI debt. Big Tech doesn't care (3 November 2026)
Stocknote: Hyperscaler capex hits 38–54% of revenue; free cash flow turns thin (31 October 2026)
OpenAI (announcement): OpenAI and Amazon announce strategic partnership (27 February 2026)
Investing.com (via Yahoo Finance): Anthropic relies on Google, Amazon and Microsoft for nearly half its revenue (26 October 2026)
Shattered (summarising the Financial Times): Amazon's $8B Nvidia chip leaseback deal (2 October 2026)
S&P Global Ratings: Research update: Meta Platforms Inc. outlook revised to negative (30 October 2026)
Zan Digital: OpenAI compute commitments: $720B against $50B revenue (25 October 2026)
CNBC: Nebius stock pops 16% on Nvidia $2 billion investment announcement (11 March 2026)
SAVRN: The neocloud landscape (1 October 2026)
Reuters: Nvidia to invest $2 billion in neocloud Nebius amid AI data center push (11 March 2026)
Securities.io (summarising Anthropic's amended S-1): Anthropic reports $895.4 billion in compute and infrastructure commitments (2 November 2026)
Amazon (SEC filings): 10-K and 10-Q filings, 2018 to September 2026: purchases of property and equipment, and long-term debt (30 October 2026)
Alphabet (SEC filings): 10-K and 10-Q filings, 2018 to September 2026: purchases of property and equipment, and long-term debt (29 October 2026)
Microsoft (SEC filings): 10-K filings, fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2026: additions to property and equipment, and long-term debt (29 July 2026)
Meta (SEC filings): 10-K and 10-Q filings, 2018 to September 2026: purchases of property and equipment, and long-term debt (22 October 2026)
Oracle (SEC filings): 10-K filings, fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2026: capital expenditures, and notes payable and borrowings (22 June 2026)