The CapEx Two-Step

Microsoft reported quarterly earnings with a masterful management of capital expenditure expectations, avoiding the market backlash seen by Google and Meta after they raised their AI-related CapEx forecasts. Google pushed its forecast past $200B for the first time, and Meta raised its low-end guidance to $130B, both causing stock declines.

The CapEx Two-Step Microsoft's masterful management of CapExpectations... It's that time of year again: quarterly earnings for Big Tech. And you know what that means... time for Wall Street to freak out over CapEx spend https://spyglass.org/wall-street-ai-capex/ related to AI build-out once again https://spyglass.org/apple-crazy-capex/ . Sure enough, Google went first and upped their forecasted spend pushing the range past $200B for the first time. The market puked https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/google-falls-more-than-6-on-capex-growth-expectations-despite-earnings-beat-202407124.html?ref=spyglass.org . Next up, Meta. They simply raised the low-end of their previous guidance to $130B up from $125B . The market puked https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-narrows-annual-capex-forecast-ai-buildout-grows-2026-07-29/?ref=spyglass.org . 1 one Then there's Microsoft...