Alphabet Inc.

Built World

Acquiring power infrastructure to fuel AI expansion

Alphabet just paid $4.75 billion for a power company, securing 10.8 gigawatts of capacity—enough to power 8 million homes. Tech giants spent 2024 locking down nuclear reactors and signing multibillion-dollar energy deals because there's not enough electricity for AI.

Updated 3 hours ago

Money Moves

Q1 2026 earnings April 29: Google Cloud backlog $240B (+55% sequentially); Cloud growth ~49% YoY; maintaining $175-185B 2026 capex; 8th-gen TPU chips unveiled April 22

The four largest cloud providers—Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon—are tracking toward over $720 billion in combined artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending for 2026, up sharply from $410 billion in 2025. All four reported first-quarter results on April 29, 2026, providing the first detailed test of whether AI revenues are keeping pace with record capital expenditure. Microsoft delivered the clearest signal: revenue of $77.7 billion (up 18% year-over-year), with Azure cloud growth of 40%—above the 37% it had guided—and earnings per share of $4.13 against analyst estimates of $3.67. Microsoft also disclosed that OpenAI has committed $250 billion in incremental Azure cloud service contracts, a figure that simultaneously validates Microsoft's infrastructure bet and deepens its financial exposure to OpenAI's monetization path. Quarterly capex came in at $34.9 billion, putting Microsoft on pace to exceed its $110–120 billion annual guidance if spending holds.

Updated Apr 29

New Capabilities

Acquiring Intersect Power to secure energy infrastructure for AI expansion

Google spent $4.75 billion over a year ago to acquire Intersect Power, owning the power plants feeding its AI data centers. Amazon bought a nuclear-powered campus in Pennsylvania. Microsoft restarted Three Mile Island in September 2024. Now Meta has announced nuclear deals unlocking up to 6.6 gigawatts—through partnerships with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo—to power American AI leadership. Tech giants aren't just buying electricity. They're securing or building the grid themselves.

Updated Feb 4