Who pays for the AI build-out
The AI funders' capital expenditures against the cash their businesses bring in. When capex runs above operating cash flow, the spending is financed (debt, new shares, cash on hand) rather than paid for, the question the market sold tech on in October 2026. Capex is each company's total: Amazon's also builds warehouses, Tesla's car factories, SpaceX's rockets and satellites.
Big tech & AI labs capex $616.9B, free cash flow $111.9B over the past 4 quarters
| Company | Latest quarter | Capex | Free cash flow | Capex / cash | Capex vs yr ago | FCF < 0 | Capex outlook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT Microsoft | Jun 30, 2026 | $35.8B | $19.6B | 65% | +110% | 0/4 | — |
| GOOGL Alphabet | Jun 30, 2026 | $44.9B | −$5.9B | 115% | +100% | 1/4 | — |
| AMZN Amazon | Jun 30, 2026 | $54.2B | −$8.8B | 119% | +68% | 2/4 | — |
| META Meta | Sep 30, 2026 | $33.9B | −$1.2B | 104% | +80% | 1/4 | 2026 $135–145B Oct 22 |
| ORCL Oracle | Aug 31, 2026 | $28.5B | −$5.4B | 123% | +235% | 4/4 | — |
| SPCX SpaceX (xAI) | Sep 30, 2026 | $19.6B | −$10.0B | 203% | 2/4 | — | |
| TSLA Tesla | Sep 30, 2026 | $4.7B | $1.5B | 76% | +110% | 1/4 | 2026 $20B lowered Oct 22 |
Neoclouds capex $35.6B, free cash flow −$26.8B over the past 4 quarters
| Company | Latest quarter | Capex | Free cash flow | Capex / cash | Capex vs yr ago | FCF < 0 | Capex outlook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRWV CoreWeave | Jun 30, 2026 | $6.4B | −$5.7B | 946% | +162% | 4/4 | — |
| NBIS Nebius | no quarterly SEC figures (files abroad) | — | |||||
| IREN IREN | Jun 30, 2026 | $1.3B | $482.2M | 73% | +622% | 3/4 | — |
| APLD Applied Digital | Aug 31, 2026 | $2.1B | −$2.0B | 3246% | +732% | 4/4 | — |
| CIFR Cipher | Jun 30, 2026 | $410.3M | −$653.8M | — | +1211% | 4/4 | — |
| WULF TeraWulf | Jun 30, 2026 | $855.6M | −$992.3M | — | +613% | 4/4 | — |
| GLXY Galaxy Digital | Jun 30, 2026 | $398.8M | −$26.8M | 107% | +31% | 3/4 | — |
| CORZ Core Scientific | Jun 30, 2026 | $565.0M | −$583.9M | — | +366% | 4/4 | — |
| HUT Hut 8 | Jun 30, 2026 | $579.6M | −$585.2M | — | +1178% | 4/4 | — |
Data-center landlords capex $11.0B, free cash flow −$2.5B over the past 4 quarters
| Company | Latest quarter | Capex | Free cash flow | Capex / cash | Capex vs yr ago | FCF < 0 | Capex outlook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EQIX Equinix | Jun 30, 2026 | $1.6B | −$511.0M | 148% | +60% | 4/4 | 2027-2029 $5–7B raised Jul 29 |
| DLR Digital Realty | Jun 30, 2026 | $914.2M | $148.6M | 86% | +30% | 3/4 | 2026 $3–3B Jul 31 |
| IRM Iron Mountain | Jun 30, 2026 | $588.2M | −$38.9M | 107% | +6% | 4/4 | 2026 $2B Aug 5 |
Capex is purchases of property and equipment as each company tags it in its SEC filings (XBRL); some companies' own free cash flow also subtracts finance-lease payments, so theirs can be lower. Each quarter as first reported; fiscal years differ (Microsoft's ends in June, Oracle's in May), so "latest quarter" is not the same calendar quarter for all. Outlooks are read by AI from earnings releases and 10-Q / 10-K filings; some companies give theirs only on the earnings call, which Wallsti does not read.
Who lives on it
| Chips | NVDA Nvidia · AMD AMD · AVGO Broadcom · MRVL Marvell · ARM Arm · TSM TSMC |
| Memory & storage | MU Micron · SKHY SK Hynix · SNDK Sandisk · WDC Western Digital · STX Seagate · RMBS Rambus · abroad: SK Hynix (Seoul), Samsung (Seoul) |
| Servers | SMCI Supermicro · DELL Dell · HPE HPE · CLS Celestica · FLEX Flex · JBL Jabil · PENG Penguin Solutions · abroad: Hon Hai (Taipei), Quanta (Taipei), Wiwynn (Taipei) |
| Networking & optics (CPO) | ANET Arista · LITE Lumentum · COHR Coherent · FN Fabrinet · CIEN Ciena · AAOI Applied Optoelectronics · TSEM Tower Semi · CRDO Credo · ALAB Astera Labs · CSCO Cisco · NOK Nokia · POET POET Technologies · LASR nLight |
| Glass substrate | GLW Corning · abroad: SKC (Seoul) |
| MLCC & passives | VSH Vishay · abroad: Murata (Tokyo), Taiyo Yuden (Tokyo), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Seoul), Yageo (Taipei) |
| Power & cooling | BE Bloom Energy · VRT Vertiv · MOD Modine · NVT nVent · CEG Constellation · VST Vistra · TLN Talen · OKLO Oklo · SMR NuScale · IMSR Terrestrial Energy · MPWR Monolithic Power · NVTS Navitas · WOLF Wolfspeed |
| Grid equipment & contractors | GEV GE Vernova · ETN Eaton · HUBB Hubbell · PWR Quanta Services · MYRG MYR Group · POWL Powell Industries |
| Data-center construction | FIX Comfort Systems · EME EMCOR · STRL Sterling |
When a funder reports after the close, its stock page and the ranking show these layers' after-hours moves next to it: on 2026-10-22 Meta's report took the chip index down 6.7%, more than Meta itself. Listings abroad are context only.