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Towards the end of April, we will get quarterly earnings from Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Meta Platforms and Amazon, representing a combined $14 trillion of market value, or just over a quarter of the S&P 500 index.
The technology narrative has shifted from excitement around the potential of AI to a ‘show me the money’ story, to quote Wells Fargo chief investment officer Darrell Cronk.
The big four hyperscalers are expected to fork out more than $600 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, compared with $400 billion in 2024. The impact on free cash flow generation will be a key focus.
Why Alphabet may offer the most interest
Google-owner Alphabet may be the most interesting update. A year ago, OpenAI was leading the AI race through its ChatGPT chatbot and there were fears that Google’s legacy search engine would be left behind.
That changed after the well-received launch of Google’s large language model Gemini 3 in late 2025 which catapulted Alphabet into a leading AI company.
Gemini was integrated across Google’s ecosystem including Docs, Maps, Chrome, Phones, YouTube and Cloud. Investors will be watching for updates on the 750 million monthly active users of Gemini and the rate of conversion to premium tiers.
Other areas of interest include Google Cloud which saw 48% year-on-year growth in the prior quarter and YouTube advertising revenue, where a revival is anticipated.
While Alphabet is reconfiguring its legacy search business Microsoft has a similar challenge with its legacy Office products suite. CEO Satya Nadella has shifted the narrative from Copilot assistants to autonomous AI agents.
The focus will be on Copilot adoption rates with the company revealing 15 million paid subscribers last quarter and 4.7 million subscribers for its developer coding tool GitHub Copilot.
After three quarters of 40% growth in Cloud services, Microsoft has signalled a slight cooling, with guidance set at 37% to 38%.
Why Apple is different
Apple’s strategy is fundamentally different from the hyperscalers as it relies on a partnership model with Alphabet to do the heavy spending on AI, which means its capital expenditures are much lower.
Investors will be looking for continued growth in iPhone sales which notched up a record $85.3 billion in the most recent quarter. Analysts estimate over 300 million users haven’t upgraded their phones in more than four years, suggesting pent-up demand.
Amazon is sitting on a $244 billion backlog in cloud contracts with analysts looking for 24% to 25% year-on-year growth in the coming quarter. Amazon is seeing cost benefits from AI as it deploys over one million robots in its fulfilment centres.
Having fully integrated adverts into Prime Video, Amazon now offers AI tools to generate video ads for small businesses. Analysts are projecting ad revenue growth of 22% to more than $20 billion.
Meta Platforms has guided for 30% annual revenue growth to $55 billion at the midpoint of the range for the first quarter of 2026, the fastest pace since 2021.
While the company has promised higher operating profits in 2026 despite doubling capital expenditure, the next quarter may prove more challenging, with costs expected to rise significantly.
Martin Gamble: Shares and Markets Writer
Martin Gamble is Shares and Markets writer at AJ Bell. He was previously the Education Editor of Shares Magazine. He has been with the business since 2019.
Martin graduated from the University of Kent in...
