The marathon of financial reports provided fascinating insight into how tech giants are monetizing AI.
From a big cloud of dollars comes a downpour. Google escapes competition
The biggest winner of the Wednesday evening turned out to be Alphabet.
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Google proved that massive AI infrastructure spending is starting to pay off. The company's cloud division recorded revenue of 20 billion USD in the last quarter, literally crushing analysts’ forecasts.
Economists had expected results around 18.4 billion USD. It is not a coincidence, but the result of a well‑thought‑out software and AI infrastructure development strategy.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, was not shy about his satisfaction and at the same time emphasized that Gemini models are already reaching billions of users.
What electrified the market the most was the backlog, i.e., the value of contracted work that has not yet been booked as revenue.
That amount almost doubled compared to the previous quarter, reaching an astonishing level of 460 billion USD.
Investors reacted with an explosion of enthusiasm, clearly visible in the trading.
Alphabet shares, the owner of Google, stabilized at 349,94 USD on Wednesday evening, recording a modest but significant rise of 0,05% in this context.
Chart. Alphabet stock price
Source: TradingView.
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Amazon and the Anthropic effect. AWS cloud rides again
Amazon did not stay indebted to its rival from Mountain View. AWS cloud division revenue grew by 28% year‑on‑year.
This is the fastest growth since Q2 2022. Analysts treat AWS as a literal litmus paper of progress in AI. The company effectively uses its market position and also builds PR by investing in top AI start‑ups such as Anthropic.
Information that Anthropic is considering another funding round at a current valuation exceeding 900 billion USD sparked investors’ imagination.
Amazon, as a key partner and investor, began to cut coupons from this, resulting in a share price rise of 1,29% to 263,04 USD.
Chart. Amazon stock price
Source: TradingView.
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Meta in the financial maze. Microsoft solid, but no euphoria
Mark Zuckerberg does not celebrate because Meta clearly lags behind the rest, making the CEO increasingly struggle to convince investors of his visions.
Although the company increased its forecasted capital expenditures for this year to 145 billion USD, the market does not see a direct profit translation.
One of Meta’s main problems is the lack of a cloud unit, which would allow Zuckerberg to sell computing power to third parties, as Google, Microsoft and Amazon do.
The nail in the coffin was Zuckerberg’s admission during a conversation with analysts that the company does not yet have a “very precise plan” for monetizing every AI product.
In other words, Meta pumps huge amounts into AI architecture but still has no defined goal. It’s a bit like Jack Sparrow before finding a compass—charming and dashing, but task‑inefficient.
Meta’s standalone AI app does not enjoy as much interest and engagement from users as Gemini or other competitors’ solutions. As a result, Meta shares fell 0,33% to 669 USD.
This is a clear signal that Wall Street is losing patience to burn cash without a clear strategy. Note that Apple’s financial results will be released tomorrow and could also shake the podium order among the remaining Big Tech giants.
Chart. Meta stock price
Source: TradingView.
Microsoft presented solid results, though the market reaction was rather muted and cool.
Azure cloud revenue is expected to rise by 40% this quarter, confirming the acceleration trend in the second half of the year.
The Redmond giant boasted that the number of paid subscriptions to the Copilot tool rose to 20 million, an increase of 5 million in just three months.
Despite this, investors remain cautious, causing shares to fall by 1,12% to 424,46 USD.
Chart. Microsoft stock price
Source: TradingView.
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Source: Bloomberg.
