Big Tech Posts AI-Led Earnings Beat, Says Supply Can’t Keep Up With Demand

Cloud Growth Drives Strong Results

Meta, Alphabet Increase 2026 Infrastructure Spending Plans

Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. all posted stronger-than-expected first-quarter results, fueled by demand for artificial intelligence. The companies also delivered the same message on capacity: AI supply still isn’t keeping up with demand, pushing them to boost infrastructure investment.

Revenue at all four companies topped market expectations in the quarter. Amazon posted sales of $181.5 billion, up 17% from a year earlier. Alphabet reported $109.9 billion, up 22%. Microsoft posted $82.9 billion, up 18%. Meta reported $56.3 billion, up 33%, its fastest growth since 2021.

Strong cloud expansion drove overall performance. Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% from a year earlier to $20.02 billion. Its cloud backlog rose to $460 billion last quarter from $240 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, nearly doubling. Google said demand for enterprise AI tools and its in-house Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, drove the increase.

Amazon Web Services revenue rose 28% from a year earlier to $37.6 billion. Microsoft’s cloud business, including Azure, grew 40% from a year earlier, roughly in line with the previous quarter.

Executives across the sector said demand continues to outstrip available supply. Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said Google Cloud revenue would have been higher if the company had been able to meet demand. At Amazon, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said customers’ rising AI investment is also boosting demand for the company’s core services. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said customer demand is exceeding available computing capacity. Meta CFO Susan Li said the company has consistently underestimated computing demand.

Capital spending aimed at expanding AI infrastructure increased further from the previous quarter. Alphabet said it was raising its 2026 capital expenditure plan to $180 billion to $190 billion from the $175 billion to $185 billion range announced in the fourth quarter of 2025. Meta also lifted its planned spending to $125 billion to $145 billion from $115 billion to $135 billion. Microsoft, which gave 2026 capex guidance for the first time, said it plans to spend $190 billion this year, up 61% from a year earlier. That is well above the market estimate of $147 billion. Amazon is maintaining its previously announced $200 billion investment plan.

After-hours trading was mixed following the earnings releases. Alphabet shares rose 7% on cloud growth, while Amazon gained 2.7%. Meta fell about 7%.

Kim In-yeop, Silicon Valley correspondent, Korea Economic Daily, inside@hankyung.com