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원문 링크: https://beincrypto.com/us-stocks-earnings-watch-ai-spending/?.tsrc=rss

4 US Stocks Earnings to Watch This Week: Will AI Spending Finally Pay Off?

Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon are the four US stocks with earnings to watch this week. Investors care less about profit beats than about whether record AI spending is producing revenue.

Alphabet already set the bar on July 22. Its shares fell despite beating on nearly every line, punished for lifting full-year capital spending guidance toward $205 billion.

Why Alphabet’s Selloff Reset Big Tech Earnings Expectations

Alphabet posted second-quarter revenue of $119.8 billion , a 24% annual increase. Diluted earnings reached $9.11 a share. Google Cloud revenue climbed 82% to $24.8 billion.

The stock still dropped roughly 4% after hours. Management had raised 2026 capital expenditure guidance to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion. The prior range topped out at $190 billion.

Quarterly capital spending hit $44.9 billion, roughly double the year-earlier figure. Free cash flow turned negative at $5.9 billion.

That combination is the new market test. Beating on revenue no longer protects a stock if spending guidance rises faster.

What the Latest Filings Already Reveal About AI Capex

Most coverage treats AI spending as a forecast. The filings show it has already landed.

BeInCrypto reviewed the most recent quarterly cash flow statements for all five companies. The pattern is consistent. Capital spending is growing far faster than the cash generated to fund it.

Microsoft offers the clearest example. Additions to property and equipment reached $30.9 billion in the March quarter, according to its filing . That is up 84% from $16.7 billion a year earlier.

Operating cash flow grew far more slowly. Subtract capital spending and the remainder fell 22% to $15.8 billion, even though net income rose 23%.

Depreciation tells the same story. Microsoft’s depreciation and amortization charge rose 31% to $10.2 billion. Meta’s climbed 54% to $6.0 billion.

This is a pattern rather than a single quarter. Microsoft spent $80.1 billion on property and equipment across the first nine months of its fiscal year, up 69% from $47.5 billion.

Amazon shows the sharpest deterioration. Trailing free cash flow fell to $1.2 billion from $25.9 billion a year earlier. The company attributed the drop to a $59.3 billion rise in equipment purchases.

Combined Big Tech AI capex guidance for 2026 now runs into the hundreds of billions. The reported figures show that spending arriving on the balance sheet ahead of the revenue meant to justify it.

The revenue side is not standing still, however. Azure grew 40% last quarter, Google Cloud 82%, and Amazon Web Services 28%. The open question concerns timing rather than demand.

Why Headline Profits Are Flattering Meta and Amazon

Here is a detail that rarely surfaces in earnings previews. Both Meta and Amazon posted enormous headline profits last quarter for reasons unrelated to operations.

Meta reported diluted earnings of $10.44 a share. That figure included an $8.03 billion income tax benefit. The company disclosed that earnings would have been $3.13 lower without it.

Strip the benefit and Meta earned closer to $7.31 a share. Wednesday’s consensus of $7.13 therefore looks less like stagnation and more like a normal comparison.

Amazon reported $2.78 a share. That number included $16.8 billion in pre-tax gains from its Anthropic investment.

The lesson holds for both. Operating performance at these companies is currently harder to read from headline earnings. Investors are watching capital spending instead, because that line is unambiguous.

What Wall Street Wants From Each of the 4 US Stocks

Here is what what economists wants from Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon.

Microsoft closes its fiscal year on Wednesday. Zacks Investment Research puts consensus at $4.21 a share across 15 analysts, against $3.65 a year earlier.

Azure decides the reaction. The unit grew 40% last quarter. Management guided to constant-currency growth of 39% to 40% for the June period.

One number supports the bull case. Commercial remaining performance obligation, essentially contracted future revenue, nearly doubled to $627 billion. Chief Executive Satya Nadella also said Microsoft’s AI business passed a $37 billion annual revenue run rate.

Meta faces tighter expense discipline. It guided to full-year costs of $162 billion to $169 billion and capital expenditure of $125 billion to $145 billion. Reality Labs lost $4.03 billion last quarter alone.

The core business is still compounding quickly. Revenue rose 33% to $56.31 billion last quarter, of which advertising contributed $55.02 billion. An average of 3.56 billion people used its apps each day in March.

Source: https://beincrypto.com/us-stocks-earnings-watch-ai-spending/?.tsrc=rss