Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Alphabet Tops Q4 Forecasts as It Plans Up to $185 Billion in 2026 AI Capex

Investors weigh a record buildout against accelerating AI demand.

Overview

  • Alphabet posted Q4 revenue of $113.8 billion and earnings of $2.82 per share, with profit rising 30% to $34.5 billion, and full-year revenue topping $400 billion for the first time.
  • Management guided 2026 capital expenditures to $175–$185 billion, with roughly 60% for compute like servers and accelerators and 40% for data centers and networking as executives flagged ongoing power and supply constraints.
  • Google Cloud revenue jumped 48% to $17.7 billion in Q4, with a run rate above $70 billion and backlog reaching $240 billion after a 55% quarter-on-quarter increase.
  • Google reported rapid scaling of Gemini, citing more than 750 million monthly active users for the app and over 10 billion tokens processed per minute through first-party model APIs.
  • Shares were volatile after hours and into premarket as investors assessed the spending outlook, while Alphabet’s Other Bets stayed unprofitable with a $3.6 billion loss on $370 million in revenue.