Big Tech AI capex plans top $740 billion this year as Alphabet posts negative free cash flow and tech stocks fall

After Q3 earnings, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft set out capital spending plans totalling over $740 billion for this year (Alphabet up to $205B, Amazon $220B, Meta up to $145B). Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $9.1B for Q3 on $51.4B of capex, and its shares fell 12% on Thursday, its worst day on record. Amazon (trailing 12-month free cash flow of minus $42.4B) fell 7% and Meta (minus $2.1B) fell 10% the week before. On Friday the Nasdaq fell 2.9%, with Nvidia, Broadcom and Qualcomm all down. Microsoft stayed free-cash-flow positive at $18.6B and spent less than it had projected. These figures come from TechCrunch's secondary reporting, and the filings are not linked.

Investors are now punishing heavy AI spending where free cash flow turns negative, which could push these companies to slow or reshape their capex. That matters most for suppliers such as Nvidia, Broadcom and Qualcomm, whose revenue depends on those budgets, and for anyone relying on cheap cloud AI capacity. Debt is becoming a bigger funding source: S&P Global data put hyperscaler borrowing at $326B this year, triple last year. How much of that is lasting is unclear, because one bad earnings cycle is not yet a trend.

The 'cracks' framing is editorial. Microsoft's cash flow and spending look fine, and the sell-off had several causes, so it should not be read as a verdict on AI demand. The claims that AI Mode is eroding Search and that this will complicate Anthropic's IPO are speculation. The Blackstone rating warning is a single FT report, relayed second-hand, with no detail here. Most of the earnings numbers had already been reported over the past two weeks.

1. 01Whether Alphabet, Amazon and Meta cut or hold their capex guidance at their next earnings or in investor updates, and whether Microsoft's lower spending turns out to be a one-off or a trend.
2. 02Whether the share price falls hold or reverse over the coming weeks, and what Nvidia's next quarterly data centre revenue and guidance show.
3. 03Hyperscaler bond issuance and credit spreads against the $326B so far, plus any official Anthropic IPO filing detail or credit-rating news that confirms or contradicts the FT's Blackstone report.