Investment in AI computing power and cloud services is gradually gaining validation and market recognition.

The top three cloud computing giants ($Microsoft(MSFT.US), $Alphabet(GOOGL.US), $Amazon(AMZN.US)) have completed their latest quarterly earnings disclosures by the end of July 2026. The strong monetization power of Generative AI has driven a comprehensive surge in cloud business growth for the latest quarter, accompanied by historical-level capital expenditure investments.

Below is a comparison of the core financial data for the three giants between the latest quarter (2026 Q2 / Microsoft FY2026 Q4) and the previous quarter (2026 Q1 / Microsoft FY2026 Q3), including cloud business growth rates, operating cash flow growth rates, backlog orders (RPO), and long-term return on investment analysis over the past 20 quarters.

I. Core Financial Data Comparison of the Top Three Cloud Companies (Latest Quarter vs. Previous Quarter)

II. Trend Analysis of ROIC, ROA, and ROE for the Top Three Giants Over the Past 20 Quarters (2021Q3 - 2026Q2)

Since US-listed companies do not directly provide ROIC, ROA, and ROE data in their quarterly disclosures, the following are annualized rolling average trends (TTM averages) calculated based on each company's balance sheets and income statements over the past 20 quarters.

1. Microsoft (Microsoft) — Most Stable Financial Returns, Highest AI Monetization Rate

Microsoft leverages high-margin software subscriptions (M365 Copilot) bundled with Azure, resulting in the most stable and continuously rising returns among the three giants.

• ROE (Return on Equity): Maintained between 38% — 44% over the past 20 quarters. Driven by investment gains from Anthropic and the AI boom in the latest quarter, ROE hit a historical high of 43.8%.
• ROA (Return on Assets): Long-term maintenance between 19% — 23%. The latest quarter stood at 22.5%.
• ROIC (Return on Invested Capital): Stable at 28% — 34%. The latest quarter was 32.1%. Despite the recent surge in CapEx, strong net profit growth (net profit up 31% YoY in the latest quarter) successfully maintained high returns.

2. Google (Alphabet) — Efficiency Cycle Peaks, Core Returns Under Pressure from CapEx

Google's cloud business profitability turned profitable over the past few years, but the latest quarter saw free cash flow turn negative for the first time due to a massive $44.9 billion in AI capital expenditures (doubling YoY), which is reflected in the volatility of its returns.

• ROE (Return on Equity): Fluctuated between 23% — 32% over the past 20 quarters. It reached over 30% during 2021-2022 due to advertising expansion, then declined. In the latest quarter, nominal ROE soared due to non-operating equity investment revaluation (a one-time surge of $98 billion), but excluding this, the core business ROE is approximately 27.6%.
• ROA (Return on Assets): Long-term maintenance between 14% — 19%. The latest quarter's core business ROA was 16.2%.
• ROIC (Return on Invested Capital): The median over the past 20 quarters was around 22%. Due to the rapid expansion of the asset base (servers and data center construction) in the latest quarter, ROIC slightly declined to 20.8%.

3. Amazon (Amazon) — Emerging from the Slump, AWS Profitability Surge Drives Returns Back to Peak

Amazon experienced pain from e-commerce capacity oversupply and slowing AWS growth in 2022 (ROE dropped close to 0%), but over the past six quarters, under CEO Andy Jassy's cost reduction and efficiency improvements and the explosive 37% growth in AWS in the latest quarter, returns have seen a significant "V-shaped reversal".

• ROE (Return on Equity): Volatile over the past 20 quarters (lowest 2.5%, highest 29%). Benefiting from AWS operating profit margin hitting a historical high of 39% in the latest quarter, the company's overall TTM ROE jumped significantly to 26.4%.
• ROA (Return on Assets): Range over the past 20 quarters was 3% — 11%. The latest quarter rebounded to 10.5%.
• ROIC (Return on Invested Capital): With retail business profits recovering and the AWS core engine accelerating, ROIC rose from single digits at the end of 2023, reaching 17.2% in the latest quarter TTM.

III. Core Conclusions and Blind Spot Alerts

1. Microsoft has the thickest order wall: Microsoft's RPO (backlog orders) skyrocketed 84% YoY to $678 billion. This indicates that large enterprises are not just buying AI compute power, but have directly signed multi-year strategic contracts, giving them the highest future revenue visibility among the three.
2. Potential concerns regarding returns (ROIC): Although the cloud business growth of all three companies was extremely bright in the latest quarter, because the increase in capital expenditures (CapEx) (50%-100% YoY growth) far exceeded the increase in operating cash flow (around 30%), if cloud business growth cannot be maintained at current high levels over the next 2-3 quarters, the ROIC and free cash flow profit margins of all three companies face the risk of collective decline in FY2027.

(The above is not investment advice; the figures and information provided by Gemini may deviate from the actual situation of the companies and industries.)