A night of publishing reports by three major tech giants closed yesterday on Wall Street with a double and clear message: artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic dream – it is in fact a revenue engine that those who know how to properly connect it to the existing ecosystem, will begin to reap the benefits. But not everyone succeeded at the same rate. while Alphabetical (Google) provided the positive drama with breaking sales records, actually Microsoft andMeta Investors were left with questions about translating the massive AI investments into profitability in the immediate term.
Google submits receipts for the AI, and receives a reward from the market
As mentioned, the search giant was the star of the evening, and proved that the leap into the age of AI is not just a marketing promise. With revenues of $102.3 billion, for the first time above the $100 billion mark in one quarter, and earnings per share significantly higher than expected, the stock jumped by more than 5% in late trading. The corporate division also stood out: Google Cloud registered a growth of 34% and revenues of over 15 billion dollars, an unusual figure for a mature tech giant.
In the global economic press, the moment was described as a “turning point”. Thus, in the Financial Times it was written, among other things, that “Alphabet is no longer lagging behind, it is advancing to the harvest stage”. CNBC reporters added that Gemini, Google’s AI application, crossed the mark of 650 million monthly users, a sharp increase from the previous quarter, which is an indication of a clear contribution to search, advertising and cloud platforms. The analysts in general sounded optimistic: for example, at Wedbush they claimed that “Google’s story has changed, AI is no longer a ‘future promise’, but a profitable business in the present.” However, it is important to note that success comes on the side of huge investments. Alphabet raised its capital investment forecast to 91-93 billion dollars in 2025, a jump of almost 20 billion from the previous forecast. Wall Street is willing to absorb it, as long as the numbers keep going up. And as of yesterday, the numbers are definitely increasing.
What happens when investments swell faster than incomes
On the other hand, Microsoft, which the market actually perceived as the champion of AI, came to the reports with extremely high expectations and failed to excite. The revenues, which were 77.7 billion dollars, did exceed expectations, and the profit per share rose to 3.72 dollars. But the critical arena, which is the company’s cloud platform-Azure, actually showed moderate growth than expected.
In the “Wall Street Journal” they wrote that “the market is examining the gap between the jump in investments in the cloud and the rate of monetization of AI in organizations”. Bloomberg also mentioned the increased dependence on Nvidia and wrote that “the celebration of AI could cool down if the supply chain falters or if competition in the cloud increases.”
And this is where the broader context comes in: a report published in Wired indicates that Microsoft poured close to $35 billion into AI investments in the quarter, which is a 74% annual jump. The company’s CFO, Amy Hood, warned that these investments “will continue to rise in sequence”, and even noted that 2026 will be a more expensive year than 2025. In response, the market is beginning to ask: are the expenses progressing faster than the results?
With Meta, the story is even more complex. The company posted strong revenues of $51.24 billion, but a one-time tax charge of $15.93 billion, following the Trump administration’s new tax law, wiped out the celebration. Earnings per share crashed to only $1.05, and the stock fell by about 7%. Reuters wrote that “the meta is being hit by a deadly combination: stricter regulation, fierce competition in AI and a cash-rich metaverse gamble that has yet to prove itself.”
And here comes the big issue: the jump in investments against markets that still do not produce a full return. Thus, Wired revealed that Meta has raised its annual capital investments to 70-72 billion dollars and expects “extraordinarily increased” growth in 2026. Zuckerberg clarified in the investor call: “It is time to speed up and build capacity, so that we will be ready for a scenario where super-intelligence will arrive faster than expected.” On the other hand, the analysts warn that “Vision is not a cash flow”, at least not at the moment.
The concern is not only towards meta. Several entities on Wall Street have begun to openly talk about an AI bubble. The reason: companies are investing tens of billions in building huge artificial intelligence infrastructures that will bear fruit – maybe. Thus, in Bernstein they said this week that “this could definitely be a bubble, and the companies are not yet providing unequivocal answers”. That is, even if today the incomes are climbing, at the same time the stakes are only increasing.
At the conclusion of the report evening, the market clearly signals: the era of stories is over, and the era of receipts has begun. Google showed how AI turns from flashy acronyms into a revenue machine; Microsoft proved stable, but not the promised breakthrough; And Meta, for its part, is hampered between regulation, taxes and a futuristic vision that has not yet translated into profits on the bottom line.
2026 will probably become the year when patience will run out. Whoever manages to show a clear capital return on the giant’s investments in the cloud and models, is the one who will determine the lead in the coming decade, which many call the first AI decade. The stock market has already chosen an initial winner, but the race itself continues to be in full swing.
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