Big Tech Reports Into a Market Pricing AI Debt

NEW YORK, Oct. 17 — OverOver the next three weeks, six of America’s largest technology companies report September-quarter results to a market demanding more compensation for AI debt. This week the cost of insuring against a default by CoreWeave, which rents out AI computing power, reached levels generally viewed as distressed, CNBC reported.

That makes capital spending, and the cash that pays for it, the figure to watch. Meta reports first, after the close on Oct. 21; Microsoft and Alphabet follow on Oct. 28, and Amazon on Oct. 29. Tesla also reports on Oct. 21, Apple on Nov. 2 and Nvidia on Nov. 17.

Hyperscalers are on track to spend $800 billion this year and more than $1 trillion a year by 2027, JPMorgan estimates, and Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle had issued more than $228 billion of bonds as of Oct. 13, more than double the total for all of 2025, CNBC reported, citing LSEG. On Thursday CNBC quoted the Evercore ISI trading desk as saying the market was “basically saying ‘no mas’ to AI debt without operating cash flow support.” The question for each report is how much of next year’s spending the company’s own cash will cover.

Oct. 21

Meta holds its call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. In July it narrowed its forecast for 2026 capital spending, including principal payments on finance leases, to $130 billion to $145 billion; its free cash flow in the second quarter was $784 million. LeasesMeta’s capital-spending figure includes principal payments on finance leases; Microsoft’s counts finance leases but not operating leases. Microsoft’s finance chief said in July that an accounting change would move more of its future data-center leases to operating leases. A year ago, Meta’s third-quarter release looked a year ahead: “capital expenditures dollar growth will be notably larger in 2026 than 2025.” The number to watch from Meta is what it says about 2027. METANasdaq614.99▼9.53−1.5%Meta Platforms · Friday’s session

Tesla also reports after the close on Oct. 21, with its question-and-answer webcast at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Its July update gave no capital-spending forecast, and it will be read for its robotaxi. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Oct. 10 that it had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin.” Under an extension from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla has until Oct. 30 to answer the agency’s questions about how it certified that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards.

Oct. 27–29

The Federal Reserve, which raised its benchmark rate a quarter point on Sept. 16, to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent, meets on Oct. 27–28. On Friday, traders put the chance of another increase at that meeting at 17 percent, by the CME FedWatch tool, Investopedia reported.

Microsoft reports after the close on Oct. 28, the second day of the Fed’s meeting, with its call at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. In July, Amy Hood, its chief financial officer, said capital spending in the September quarter “will be over $50 billion” and forecast Azure growth of about 45 percent in constant currency, as “customer demand continues to exceed supply.” MSFTNasdaq521.91▼8.23−1.6%Microsoft · Friday’s session

Alphabet, whose call is at 4:30 p.m. Eastern the same day, raised its 2026 capital-spending range in July to $195 billion to $205 billion, from $180 billion to $190 billion. It expects that spending “to increase significantly in 2027,” with details “at a later date.” The figures to watch are that 2027 number and Google Cloud, whose backlog reached $514 billion in the second quarter.

Amazon reports on Oct. 29, with its call at 5 p.m. Eastern. It forecast third-quarter operating income of $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion. On its July earnings call, Andy Jassy said Amazon now expected about $220 billion in cash capital spending in 2026, up from a prior estimate of about $200 billion, according to the transcript published by MarketBeat. Reuters also reported the increase to $220 billion. The figure to watch is AWS, its cloud unit, which grew 37 percent in the second quarter, to $42.2 billion; Andy Jassy, the chief executive, called it “our fastest growth in 18 quarters.”

November

Apple reports on Nov. 2, with its call at 5 p.m. Eastern. Its June-quarter revenue rose 16 percent, to $109.4 billion; it will be read for iPhone sales and for the “all-new Siri AI” that Tim Cook, the chief executive, said Apple introduced at WWDC26.

Nvidia has scheduled its fiscal third-quarter earnings call for Nov. 17. It has forecast revenue for that quarter of $108.0 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, assuming no data-center compute revenue from China. Last TimeIn its second fiscal quarter Nvidia reported revenue of $96.2 billion, up 106 percent from a year earlier, of which $89.0 billion came from data centers. Its report will offer another measure of demand for the equipment behind the others’ spending.