Google and Microsoft Hold Capex Forecasts as AI Infrastructure Costs Rise

Mountain View and Redmond, 29 October 2026 – Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corporation kept key capital-spending expectations broadly unchanged even as their latest results showed the artificial-intelligence build-out becoming more expensive and more central to operations. Alphabet maintained a 2026 capital-expenditure range of US$195 billion to US$205 billion and said spending would increase significantly in 2027. Microsoft reported quarterly capital expenditure of US$41 billion and said its calendar-2026 investment expectations were unchanged outside a lease-accounting effect, while first-quarter fiscal-2027 capital expenditure is expected to exceed US$50 billion.

For Asian businesses and investors, the significance is that the two largest cloud platforms are not responding to cost pressure with a simple acceleration of published budgets. They are holding formal forecasts while continuing to add servers, processors and data-centre capacity to meet demand. That combination points to a more disciplined phase of the AI cycle, in which customer bookings, cash flow and the useful life of equipment will matter as much as headline spending growth.