Alphabet Spent $45 Billion on Artificial Intelligence Last Quarter, and It Already Plans to Spend $811 Billion More
Adam Levy, The Motley Fool
Mon, July 27, 2026 at 2:07 PM GMT+5:30
4 min read
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Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has some investors worried about how much it’s spending on artificial intelligence (AI). In its second-quarter report, the company said it had negative free cash flow for the first time since going public way back in 2004, after spending $45 billion on capital expenditures last quarter. That’s double what it spent a year ago, and it plans to spend even more over the next few years
Management raised its full-year 2026 capital expenditure budget to between $195 billion and $205 billion alongside the earnings release. It also said capex will “increase significantly in 2027.” In fact, a brief note in the company’s 10-Q filing with the SEC revealed that it’s already committed to spending another $811 billion, mostly on artificial intelligence
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Alphabet’s going all-in on AI
While it won’t show up on the company’s balance sheet, Alphabet disclosed that it had entered into purchase commitments and other contractual obligations totaling $811 billion as of the end of the second quarter. That’s a huge increase from the $332 billion in commitments it had signed at the end of the first quarter
These long-term supply agreements help it secure its chip supply, data center construction, and energy services. It may secure a guaranteed supply or favorable rates to lock in these take-or-pay contracts years into the future. The company said it expects to generally fulfill all of its agreements by 2030, while the energy service agreements range from two years to 26 years, with obligations through 2054. As such, investors can expect massive capital expenditures through at least 2030, with energy contracts in place to serve its growing portfolio of data centers for decades to come.
It’s a huge bet on the continued demand for AI compute. Management has good reason to make that bet confidently. It saw its remaining performance obligations climb to $520 billion as of the end of June. On top of that, Alphabet says it’s facing a severe shortage of compute capacity as it takes on massive, multi-year deals. As a result, it’s planning to increase its capacity through third-party providers as a bridge until it can build out more capacity. While that will result in a short-term margin hit, the long-term benefits outweigh the cost.
