Big Spenders. Big Tech earnings season may be in the rearview mirror, but the large numbers linger on. And it goes well beyond the now infamous capital expenditure figures. Yes, five companies— Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Oracle —will spend about $800 billion in combined capital expenditures this year.
But the spending will go much deeper—and longer. As we’ve learned in post-earnings filings, the companies are spending hundreds of billions more on leases and purchase agreements for chips, energy and other capital goods.
From a big picture, investors hoping that the capex would moderate in 2027 are likely to be disappointed. Buried in the notes of the companies’ quarterly filings, are long-term commitments totaling $2.7 trillion.
And that number may just grow in the coming quarters, as memory companies like Micron and SK Hynix use their current market and pricing power to push customers into long-term agreements at high prices.
In terms of future spending disclosures, Alphabet leads the pack. It’s committed a stunning $811 billion “for technical infrastructure and inventory through long-term supply agreements and open purchase orders,” as well as energy contracts and content licenses. A large majority is guaranteed, and a quarter of it will be spent in the next 12 months. Three months ago, these commitments totaled only $332 billion. The rapid growth is a hint that Alphabet may have been one of the customers who signed a long-term memory supply deal.
Alphabet expects the supply agreements to mostly be fulfilled through 2030, with the exception of energy contracts that extend up to 26 years.
On top of that, the company has $91 billion in upcoming leases that will eventually get added to its long list of liabilities. Leases can have terms ranging anywhere from one to 26 years. Altogether, Alphabet’s total future commitments are $902 billion.
Alphabet shares sold off sharply last month when the company boosted its 2026 capex by about $15 billion to about $200 billion. But, really, that’s just the start.
No. 2 among the big spenders is Meta, with nearly $700 billion in future commitments, fairly evenly split between new leases and “third-party cloud capacity arrangements and investments.” For the supply agreements, $135 billion of $349 billion will be spent by the end of 2027.
Meta expects to spend around $140 billion on capex this year.
No. 3 is Microsoft with almost $560 billion in future spending, mostly composed of $329 billion in upcoming leases. The company is also on the hook for $194 billion in purchase commitments and another $35 billion in construction costs. Of the $229 billion total commitments, 87% will be spent in the next 12 months.
Microsoft expects to spend about $175 billion on capex this year.
Oracle comes in fourth on the list, mostly from $260 billion of future leases. Oracle’s quarter ended in May, and it had a relatively modest $13 billion in unconditional purchase obligations. But in the first three weeks of June it added another $19 billion, so the company’s commitments may keep rising. Oracle is a rising cloud service, and it expects $70 billion in fiscal 2028 capex, which began in June.
Finally, the largest of the clouds with the highest capex—expected at around $220 billion in 2026—Amazon has been relatively modest in making promises. It has $267 billion in future commitments, roughly split between guaranteed purchase agreements and new leases. Roughly half of that total won’t come until after 2030.
By keeping its commitments relatively low, Amazon may be waiting on a better buyers’ market for components and data centers. Its existing scale may be helping it, as well.
The fine print in the filings doesn’t tell us.
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