"Rare Same-Day Earnings Reports from the 'Big Four Tech Giants': Google Surges, Meta Plummets; Google, Microsoft, and Amazon See Rapid Cloud Growth; Google and Meta Raise Capital Expenditure"

"Rare Same-Day Earnings Reports from the 'Big Four Tech Giants': Google Surges, Meta Plummets; Google, Microsoft, and Amazon See Rapid Cloud Growth; Google and Meta Raise Capital Expenditure"

```

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft—the four major tech giants—released their earnings reports collectively on Wednesday. All exceeded Wall Street expectations, but the market's reaction varied greatly.

On April 29, Wallstreetcn mentioned that Google’s parent company Alphabet reported first-quarter revenue of $109.9 billion and earnings per share of $5.11, both above expectations. Most strikingly, Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-on-year.

After hours, Alphabet stood out, with its stock price rising as much as 7%. In contrast, the market responses for the other three tech giants were disappointing. Meta fell nearly 7% after hours, while Amazon and Microsoft showed modest gains.

Recently, major U.S. stock indexes have hovered near historic highs, but the market faces multiple pressures, including the Iran war, rising oil prices, and weak consumer confidence. Investors are highly sensitive to every move by the "Big Seven Tech Companies."

Google Cloud accelerates growth beyond expectations: Market prices in AI full-stack advantage

The strong performance of Google Cloud is the core driver behind Alphabet’s stock increase.

Year-on-year revenue growth of 63% far exceeded expectations, and this was the first quarter where enterprise AI solutions drove cloud business growth, with customers heavily developing intelligent agent applications on the Gemini platform.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said, "2026 gets off to an extremely bright start," emphasizing that Google is currently the only provider able to cover the enterprise AI full stack.

Google's self-developed Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) has already achieved cost-effectiveness internally. The company stated in its earnings call that it plans to soon offer chip products that can be deployed in customers’ own data centers.

Driven by AI demand and TPU hardware sales, Google Cloud’s backlog nearly doubled quarter-on-quarter to $462 billion.

Capital expenditure increase does not trigger concern: Profit visibility is key

Alphabet announced it would raise its full-year capital expenditure guidance from $175–$185 billion to $180–$190 billion and hinted that capex in 2027 will be "significantly higher."

The market viewed this as necessary investment for continued growth; this attitude contrasts sharply with the market’s response to Meta.

Wallstreetcn mentioned that Meta raised its 2026 capex guidance from $115–$135 billion to $125–$145 billion, yet its stock price dropped nearly 7%.

The key difference is: Alphabet’s spending expansion is backed by strong cloud revenue growth and a large order backlog, while Meta has no cloud computing sales to external clients, making its AI investment logic more difficult to quantify commercially.

Jake Behan, capital markets director at Direxion, wrote in a report:

The market questions Meta’s spending, but Alphabet’s investments are recognized because they are supported by a $460 billion backlog.

Chris Brigati, chief investment officer at SWBC, pointed out in a client report:

Each company faces different dynamics, but turning high capital expenditures into tangible results remains the ultimate test.

Other giants’ reactions diverge; cloud performance is the watershed

Amazon AWS accelerated growth to 28% this quarter with solid performance: earnings per share of $2.78 and revenue of $181.5 billion.

Brent Thill, Jefferies analyst, noted that the 28% growth is slightly below the 28–30% target range; Amazon’s stock fluctuated after hours, initially dropping, but then rebounding to 2.6%.

As for Microsoft, Azure revenue grew 39%, only in line with expectations; paid Copilot subscriptions increased by five million quarter-on-quarter but failed to surprise investors. Microsoft plans to invest $190 billion in capex this year.

After the earnings release, Microsoft’s stock dropped 3% before turning slightly positive.

AI return logic is becoming more clear, but uncertainty remains

This earnings season provides the market with an important reference answer regarding AI investment returns.

Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all reported double-digit growth in cloud business, addressing concerns about whether massive AI investments can yield substantial commercial returns. The four companies altogether plan to invest about $650 billion in AI infrastructure in 2026.

Ed Yardeni, president of market consultancy Yardeni Research, said, After April began, investors gradually realized that the market as a whole, including the "Big Seven Tech Companies," trades at a discount relative to expected earnings. This was the important context behind the previous rebound.

He also pointed out:

Concerns about certain uncertainties—like whether these companies are overspending or can achieve reasonable returns—seem to have faded from view.

However, potential risks still exist. The gaps in key revenue and user targets at OpenAI have weighed on the tech sector’s recent momentum.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty of the Iran war, oil prices, and consumer confidence remain important variables hanging over the high valuations of the "Big Seven Tech Companies."

Risk Disclosure and DisclaimerThe market has risks, and investments require caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it consider the special investment goals, financial status, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article suit their particular circumstances. Investments made based on this article are at your own risk. ```