Alphabet, Amazon and Meta post negative free cash flow in Q3

Alphabet, Amazon and Meta all reported negative free cash flow in the third quarter of 2026, according to figures from the companies' quarterly results. Alphabet's deficit came to about $9.1 billion, Amazon's to about $33.5 billion and Meta's to about $2.1 billion.

Alphabet's capital expenditure in the quarter reached $51.4 billion, more than double the level of a year earlier, leaving the company with negative free cash flow for a second consecutive quarter. At Amazon, operating cash flow of $42.4 billion was outweighed by capital purchases of $77.3 billion; on a trailing 12-month basis the company's free cash flow stood at a deficit of about $42.4 billion.

Meta raised its capital expenditure outlook for this year to a range of $135 billion to $145 billion. S&P Global cut the company's credit rating outlook from stable to negative.

Microsoft reported $18.6 billion in third-quarter free cash flow, with capital expenditures including finance leases at $45.2 billion. Its share price fell 1.6% on the last day of the previous month.

Pressure on balance sheets has grown with the spending. According to FactSet, debt increases relative to capital expenditure at Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle rose from 9% in fiscal 2024 to 32% for the trailing 12 months as of mid-this year.

Cloud revenue continued to grow in the quarter: 103% year on year at Google Cloud, 39% at AWS and 48% at Azure. Still, the Nasdaq-100 index fell 6.7% during October, its largest monthly decline since March of last year. Bloomberg reported on October 31, 2026 that market caution over the burden of AI investment grew after the major US big tech companies released their third-quarter earnings.