The company increased that figure on Wednesday to $85 billion, saying it was raising it due to “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.” The company expects to further increase capital expenditures in 2026, Alphabet finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said on an earnings call.

The hyperscaler wars are still raging despite concern earlier this year that cloud network players, including Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, may cut capital spending on AI infrastructure. Concerns that surging spending to refresh and build out cloud networks accelerated when China’s DeepSeek chatbot launched with a shockingly low $6 million development cost,

Alphabet reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue of US$96.4 billion ($146 billion), up 14% year-over-year, but seemed to unsettle investors with a surprise lift in capital spending. The numbers: Shares,

Wall Street inched to more records as gains for Alphabet and artificial-intelligence stocks helped make up for Tesla’s steep tumble.

Wall Street inched to more records on Thursday as gains for Alphabet and artificial intelligence stocks helped make up for Tesla's steep tumble.