--- title: "\"Big Four\" Tech Giants Release Earnings on Same Day in Rare Occurrence: Alphabet Surges, Meta Plummets; Rapid Cloud Growth for Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon; Alphabet and Meta Raise Capital Expenditures" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/284663596.md" description: "Alphabet's stock rose 7% in after-hours trading, driven by a 63% year-over-year growth rate in Google Cloud and its full-stack AI advantages. Meta fell nearly 7% as its increased capital expenditure lacked endorsement from cloud revenue. Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure showed steady growth rates, with their stock prices fluctuating but edging higher. The four giants collectively plan to invest approximately $650 billion in AI infrastructure" datetime: "2026-04-30T00:18:57.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/284663596.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284663596.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/284663596.md) --- # "Big Four" Tech Giants Release Earnings on Same Day in Rare Occurrence: Alphabet Surges, Meta Plummets; Rapid Cloud Growth for Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon; Alphabet and Meta Raise Capital Expenditures The four tech giants—Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft—concentrated their earnings releases on Wednesday. While all exceeded Wall Street expectations, market reactions varied significantly. On April 29, Wallstreetcn mentioned that Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported Q1 revenue of $109.9 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $5.11, both surpassing expectations. Most notably, Google Cloud revenue grew by 63% year-over-year. In after-hours trading, Alphabet stood out with a stock price surge of up to 7%. In contrast, the market reaction to the other three tech giants was disappointing. Meta fell nearly 7% in after-hours trading, while Amazon and Microsoft edged slightly higher. Recently, major U.S. stock indices have hovered near historic highs, but the market faces multiple pressures, including the Iran war, rising oil prices, and weak consumer confidence. Investors remain highly sensitive to every move by the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks. ## Google Cloud's Accelerated Growth Exceeds Expectations; Full-Stack AI Advantages Priced In by Market Google Cloud's strong performance was the core driver behind Alphabet's stock price increase. **The 63% year-over-year revenue growth far exceeded expectations, and this quarter marked the first time enterprise AI solutions drove cloud business growth, with customers extensively developing intelligent agent applications on the Gemini platform.** Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated that "2026 has started off extremely strongly," emphasizing that Google is currently the only service provider capable of covering the full stack of enterprise AI. Google's self-developed Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) have already achieved cost-effectiveness improvements internally. During the earnings conference call, the company announced plans to soon offer chip products deployable in customers' own data centers. **Driven by AI demand and TPU hardware sales, Google Cloud's order backlog nearly doubled quarter-over-quarter to reach $462 billion.** ## Increased Capital Expenditure Does Not Spark Concern; Profit Visibility Is Key Alphabet announced an increase in its full-year capital expenditure guidance from the previous range of $175 billion to $185 billion to $180 billion to $190 billion, hinting that capital expenditures in 2027 are expected to "increase substantially." The market interpreted this as necessary investment for sustained growth. However, this attitude contrasts sharply with the market's reaction to Meta. Wallstreetcn mentioned that Meta raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance from the previous range of $115 billion to $135 billion to $125 billion to $145 billion, yet its stock price fell nearly 7%. The key difference lies in the fact that **Alphabet's expenditure expansion is backed by strong cloud business revenue growth and a massive order backlog, whereas Meta does not have an external cloud computing sales segment, making the commercial return logic of its AI investments harder to quantify.** Jake Behan, Head of Capital Markets at Direxion, wrote in a report: > **The market questions Meta's spending, while Alphabet's investment is recognized because it is supported by a $460 billion order backlog.** Chris Brigati, Chief Investment Officer at SWBC, pointed out in a report to clients: > Each company faces its own unique dynamics, but delivering tangible results from high capital expenditures remains the ultimate test. ## Divergent Reactions for the Other Two Giants; Cloud Performance Becomes the Watershed Amazon AWS accelerated its growth rate to 28% this quarter, delivering solid performance. The company reported EPS of $2.78 and revenue of $181.5 billion. Jefferies analyst Brent Thill noted in a report that the 28% growth rate was still slightly below the target range of 28% to 30%, causing volatility in the after-hours stock price, which initially dipped before recovering to a 2.6% gain. Regarding Microsoft, Azure revenue grew by 39%, merely meeting market expectations. Paid Copilot subscriptions increased by 5 million quarter-over-quarter, but failed to surprise investors. Microsoft plans to spend $190 billion on capital expenditures this year. Following the earnings release, Microsoft's stock initially fell by 3% before slightly turning positive. ## AI Return Logic Gradually Clarifies, But Uncertainty Persists This concentrated earnings season provided the market with an important reference point for AI investment returns. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all reported double-digit growth in their cloud businesses, addressing some external concerns about whether massive AI investments can yield substantial commercial returns. **The four companies collectively plan to invest approximately $650 billion in AI infrastructure construction in 2026.** Ed Yardeni, President of market advisory firm Yardeni Research, stated that **entering April, investors gradually realized that the overall market, including the "Magnificent Seven," was trading at a discount relative to expected earnings, which was an important backdrop for the previous rally.** He also pointed out: > Concerns about certain uncertainties, such as whether these companies are spending too much and whether they can achieve reasonable returns, seem to have faded from view. However, potential risks remain. The shortfall in OpenAI's key revenue and user targets has somewhat dragged down the recent momentum of the tech sector. Meanwhile, the Iran war, oil price trends, and uncertainty in consumer confidence remain significant variables hanging over the high valuations of the "Magnificent Seven." ### Related Stocks - [META.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/META.US.md) - [AMZN.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZN.US.md) - [GOOGL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOGL.US.md) - [GOOG.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOG.US.md) - [MSFT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFT.US.md) - [CLOU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CLOU.US.md) - [METW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/METW.US.md) - [AMZZ.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZZ.US.md) - [MSFU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFU.US.md) - [GGLL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GGLL.US.md) - [AMZW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZW.US.md) - [GOOW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOW.US.md) - [FBL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/FBL.US.md) - [AMZU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZU.US.md) - [JEF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JEF.US.md) - [OpenAI.NA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/OpenAI.NA.md) ## Related News & Research - [Google’s Run Faces Tight Risk-Reward as Earnings Loom](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284535773.md) - [Fed decision ahead; tech giants to report - what’s moving markets](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284519757.md) - [Meta says it doesn't know its ideal size as it prepares to lay off 10% of its entire staff](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284662355.md) - [META Will Report Q1 Earnings on April 29 — Can Zuckerberg's AI Bet Fuel Another Stock Rally?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284360394.md) - [Meta plans 10% layoffs as AI spending soars: Source](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283911343.md)