Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta spent a combined $511 billion on property and equipment in the twelve months to June 30, 2026, according to the cash flow statements in the 10-K and 10-Qs they filed in July 2026. The same four spent $291 billion in the twelve months before that, so the total rose about 75%. Amazon spent the most, $173 billion, which was more than the $161 billion of cash its operations brought in over the period. The other three spent between 63.4% and 71.3% of their operating cash flow.
This post shows where those numbers sit in each filing, what the capex line leaves out, and the questions an investor might ask next. It reads the filings; it doesn't recommend buying or selling anything. Investi is a research and information tool, not a licensed investment adviser.
#Where does the capex number come from?
Capital expenditures, or capex, are what a company pays for long-lived assets such as buildings, servers and network equipment. In a filing they sit in the cash flow statement, under investing activities. Each company names the line its own way: Microsoft calls it "Additions to property and equipment", while Alphabet, Amazon and Meta call it "Purchases of property and equipment".
The periods need care. A 10-Q's cash flow statement covers the year to date, not the quarter. To get twelve months ending June 30, 2026 for a company whose fiscal year ends in December, take its last full year, add the first half of 2026 and subtract the first half of 2025. Microsoft's fiscal year ends June 30, so its fiscal 2026, in the 10-K filed July 29, 2026, already covers those twelve months.
Amazon makes the arithmetic easy to check: its 10-Q filed July 31, 2026 prints trailing-twelve-month columns in the cash flow statement, and they match the figures computed here to the million.
#How much did each company spend?
All four spent more than in the previous twelve months, as of their filings for the period ended June 30, 2026:
- Microsoft spent $116 billion in fiscal 2026, up 79.6% from $64.6 billion in fiscal 2025 (10-K).
- Alphabet spent $132 billion, up 97.7% from $67.0 billion (10-Q filed July 23, 2026).
- Amazon spent $173 billion, up 60.7% from $108 billion (10-Q filed July 31, 2026).
- Meta spent $89.3 billion, up 71.3% from $52.2 billion (10-Q filed July 30, 2026).
Amazon's figure is gross. Its cash flow statement shows proceeds from property sales and incentives on a separate, much smaller line, so a net figure would be slightly lower. Assets a company obtains through leases aren't in any of the four lines.
#How does capex compare with operating cash flow?
Operating cash flow is the cash a business brings in from running itself, before it invests. Dividing capex by it shows how much of that cash went back into property and equipment. Operating cash flow minus capex is the simplest version of free cash flow.
Over the twelve months to June 30, 2026, Microsoft's capex was 63.4% of its operating cash flow of $183 billion, Alphabet's 71.3% of $186 billion, and Meta's 68.5% of $130 billion. Amazon's was 107.2% of $161 billion: on this measure its free cash flow for the period was negative.
A ratio above 100% says the spending in that period was larger than the cash operations produced. The difference came from somewhere else on the cash flow statement, such as cash on hand, sales of securities or borrowing. The filings show which, in the investing and financing sections.
#What does the capex line leave out?
Leases. Each company also discloses leases it has signed that had not started by the end of the period, mostly for data centers. They aren't on the balance sheet or in capex yet. As of June 30, 2026, the four filings list $831 billion of them combined:
- Microsoft: $329 billion, "primarily for datacenters", which the 10-K says will commence between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2033, with some arrangements "subject to certain contractual conditions being met".
- Meta: approximately $279 billion, commencing through 2036 (10-Q).
- Amazon: $137 billion, a row in the commitments table of its 10-Q.
- Alphabet: $85.2 billion, commencing between 2026 and 2031 (10-Q).
These are future payments spread over lease terms that the filings put at up to 20 years for Microsoft and up to 30 years for Meta, so they don't compare directly with one year of capex. Each company also words and measures them a little differently, which makes the ranking rough. They do show commitments that a reader of the capex line alone would miss.
#What changed in Meta's September quarter?
Meta is the first of the four to report the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Its 10-Q filed October 22, 2026 shows $83.1 billion of capex for January to September 2026, up 71.9% from $48.3 billion in the same nine months of 2025. Its leases not yet commenced were approximately $356 billion at September 30, up from approximately $279 billion three months earlier. The June 10-Q had already noted about $68 billion of data center leases signed in July 2026.
As of October 24, 2026, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon had not yet filed their reports for the September quarter. When they do, the twelve-month figures above will move.
#What would an investor ask next?
The capex line answers how much. It doesn't answer what for, at what return, or how it's paid for. These are the questions the filings can help with:
- What is the spending for? The cash flow statement doesn't split capex between data centers, servers, warehouses and offices. Item 2 of a 10-Q (management's discussion) is where each company describes it in its own words.
- How fast will it reach the income statement? Property and equipment is expensed as depreciation over its useful life once it's in service. The cash flow statement shows depreciation each period, and the notes give the useful lives each company assumes.
- How is it funded? Compare capex with operating cash flow, then read the financing section for debt issued and repaid, buybacks and dividends.
- When do the leases start? The lease notes give commencement years and terms, and whether leases are expected to be operating or finance leases.
- Who receives the money? Suppliers report the other side. Nvidia's 10-Q now breaks out revenue from what it calls hyperscale customers; we read it in How much of Nvidia's revenue comes from hyperscalers?.
If you track one of these companies, those questions make reasonable lines in a written thesis, with a note of what would change your mind. How to build an investment thesis walks through that.
#How can you check these numbers yourself?
Open the filing on EDGAR
Search the company on sec.gov and open the latest 10-Q or 10-K. The links above go straight to each document.
Find the cash flow statement
Under investing activities, read the line for purchases or additions to property and equipment, and note the period it covers.
Build the twelve months
For a December fiscal year, add the last full year to this year's year-to-date figure and subtract last year's year-to-date figure.
Read the lease note
Search the document for "not yet commenced" to find signed leases that haven't started, with their timing and terms.
What is capex?
Capital expenditures are cash a company spends on long-lived assets such as land, buildings, servers and equipment. They appear in the investing section of the cash flow statement. Unlike operating costs, they aren't expensed when paid; the cost reaches the income statement gradually, as depreciation, once the asset is in use.
Why use the twelve months to June 30, 2026?
It is the latest period all four companies had filed as of October 24, 2026. Microsoft's fiscal year ends on June 30, so its fiscal 2026 matches exactly. For Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, the twelve months are computed from their 10-K and the first-half figures in their 10-Qs filed in July 2026.
Is capex the same as AI spending?
No. The capex line covers all property and equipment, including warehouses, offices and network gear. The cash flow statement doesn't split it by purpose. Several filings describe the leases they have signed as primarily data centers, but the share of capex that goes to AI is something each company describes in its own words, not a filed number.
Does capex above operating cash flow mean trouble?
Not by itself. It means the company invested more in the period than its operations produced, and funded the difference from cash, investments or borrowing. Whether that is sensible depends on what the assets earn later, which no single period's filing can show. The financing section shows how the gap was covered.
The figures here are as of the filings named above, and each one links to the document it came from. To run the same comparison on other companies, open their cash flow statements and repeat the steps. In Investi, you can ask the analyst for this table and each number links to the line of the filing it came from, with the twelve-month formula shown.