Google is going for the jugular — by doubling capex and outspending the rest of Big Tech

• Alphabet's stock fell 2% after it reported Q4 earnings on Wednesday.
• The parent company of Google is aggressively ramping up capital expenditures for AI infrastructure.
• All of Big Tech is spending more as the AI race continues.

Alphabet is dramatically increasing its AI chips and data center spending this year.

The Google parent company is projecting capital expenditures of $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026, essentially double what it said it would spend on property and equipment last year, the company said in its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday. In October, Google projected capex of $91 billion to $93 billion for 2025.

Google's stock fell 2% after its earnings report.

The company attributed the significant increase in spending to meeting customer demand.

"We're seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board," the company said in its fourth-quarter earnings statement.

The numbers shouldn't surprise anyone who has followed Big Tech's spending patterns throughout the AI race. Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have all aggressively ramped up spending.

On earnings calls with investors last week, Meta and Microsoft both said they'd spent more in 2025 than initially forecast.

While both companies surpassed Wall Street's revenue expectations for the quarter, only Meta's stock went up on the news. Microsoft's stock fell by more than 6% as the market digested news of higher-than-anticipated capex.

Investors raised concerns about Microsoft's backlog, nearly half of which is attributed to a single customer — OpenAI.