Our own data
Hyperscaler capex as a share of revenue
How much of their revenue Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta spend on capital expenditure, quarter by quarter. Computed from their SEC filings, recalculated on every deployment of this site. This is the clearest public proxy for how hard the AI infrastructure build-out is being pushed — and it is the number the "AI bubble" argument really turns on.
Our own data
How much of their revenue the hyperscalers spend on infrastructure
Capital expenditure as a share of revenue for Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, quarter by quarter, computed from their SEC filings.
- MSFT39.8%Q2 2026
- GOOGL37.5%Q2 2026
- AMZN27.0%Q2 2026
- META49.5%Q2 2026
Method · Caveats
Quarterly figures are taken from SEC EDGAR (XBRL company facts, forms 10-Q and 10-K, us-gaap taxonomy). Cash-flow items are reported cumulatively within a fiscal year, so quarters are reconstructed by differencing. The combined ratio is total capex divided by total revenue — weighted by size, not an average of the four company ratios. A quarter enters the chart only once all four companies have filed. Every run cross-checks the reconstructed quarters against the annual 10-K figure.
- Capex covers all property, plant and equipment — not only AI infrastructure. Companies do not break that out.
- Fiscal years differ (Microsoft closes in June), so quarters are aligned by period end date.
- The most recent quarter can be restated in later filings.
Source: SEC EDGAR — XBRL company facts · read on 2026-08-17
Why this number matters
The bull case and the bear case on AI meet at one line item. These four companies are spending on data centres and chips in the expectation that AI demand keeps compounding. If it does, the spending looks visionary. If it disappoints, the same spending becomes depreciation without the revenue to justify it. Everything else in the debate is commentary on this ratio.
Full quarterly series
| Quarter | Capex (combined) | Revenue (combined) | Capex / revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | $44.3B | $322.2B | 13.7% |
| Q2 2024 | $52.9B | $336.5B | 15.7% |
| Q3 2024 | $58.9B | $353.3B | 16.7% |
| Q4 2024 | $72.3B | $402.3B | 18.0% |
| Q1 2025 | $71.9B | $358.3B | 20.1% |
| Q2 2025 | $88.2B | $388.1B | 22.7% |
| Q3 2025 | $97.3B | $411.4B | 23.6% |
| Q4 2025 | $118.6B | $468.4B | 25.3% |
| Q1 2026 | $129.8B | $430.6B | 30.1% |
| Q2 2026 | $165.1B | $471.2B | 35.0% |
By company
| Company | Latest quarter | Capex / revenue | Annual cross-check | XBRL tags used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT · Microsoft | Q2 2026 | 39.8% | passes (0.0%, 0.0%) | PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment, RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, Revenues |
| GOOGL · Alphabet | Q2 2026 | 37.5% | passes (0.0%, 0.0%) | PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment, Revenues, RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax |
| AMZN · Amazon | Q2 2026 | 27.0% | passes (0.0%, 0.0%) | PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets, PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment, RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax |
| META · Meta Platforms | Q2 2026 | 49.5% | passes (0.0%, 0.0%) | PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment, RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, Revenues |
How this is calculated
Cash-flow items are reported cumulatively
Within a fiscal year, companies report cash-flow lines year-to-date: Q1 covers three months, Q2 six, Q3 nine, and the 10-K twelve. Only Q1 is a real quarter. The rest have to be recovered by subtracting the shorter period with the same start date. Reading the filings naively overstates quarterly capex by up to a factor of four.
Tags drift between years
The same company changes the XBRL tag it files under. Alphabet moved from RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax to Revenues; Nvidia books capital spending under PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets rather than PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment. Taking the first tag that returns data therefore yields a series that silently stops updating, so candidate tags are merged with preference for the most recent coverage.
Everything is cross-checked against the annual figure
The four reconstructed quarters of each fiscal year must sum to the figure reported in that year's 10-K. If any company drifts by more than 0.6% — the tolerance for XBRL rounding — the build warns and the chart is not rendered. A wrong number is worse than a missing one.
Reading history
Every recalculation is logged, so you can see the figure is maintained rather than published once.
| Recalculated | Latest full quarter then | Capex / revenue |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-17 | Q2 2026 | 35.0% |
| 2026-08-05 | Q1 2026 | 30.1% |
| 2026-07-30 | Q1 2026 | 30.1% |
| 2026-07-28 | Q1 2026 | 30.1% |
Using this figure
You are welcome to cite or reproduce this chart and the underlying numbers, with a link back to this page. The data itself is public — it comes from SEC filings — but the quarterly reconstruction and the cross-check are ours, and the two traps described above mean a naive reading of the same filings will not reproduce these figures.
Source: SEC EDGAR — XBRL company facts