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AI Infrastructure Spending

Read four companies’ infrastructure disclosures without confusing cash spending, leases, and forecasts.

These are company-wide disclosures, not a ranking of AI investment. Cash purchases, lease principal payments, new lease commitments, and guidance answer different questions. All amounts below are USD billions; no guidance is mixed into actual spending.

Sources checked 2026-09-20 · Four completed reporting quarters through June 30, 2026 · Weekly review schedule

Showing 16 quarterly observations.

Scroll the table horizontally to see expense definitions and evidence links.

Cash property-and-equipment purchases and separate lease principal
CompanyPeriodCash purchases ($bn)Lease principal ($bn)Expense line ($bn)Evidence
Microsoft2025-07-01
to 2025-09-30		19.394Not separately disclosed13.061
Definition & source

Depreciation, amortization, and other (cash-flow adjustment)

As originally reported in Q1. Subsequent year-to-date presentation changes mean this broad “and other” line must not be summed across original releases as a consistent annual depreciation series.

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Microsoft2025-10-01
to 2025-12-31		29.876Not separately disclosed9.198
Definition & source

Depreciation, amortization, and other (cash-flow adjustment)

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Microsoft2026-01-01
to 2026-03-31		30.876Not separately disclosed10.167
Definition & source

Depreciation, amortization, and other (cash-flow adjustment)

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Microsoft2026-04-01
to 2026-06-30		35.802Not separately disclosed11.022
Definition & source

Depreciation, amortization, and other (cash-flow adjustment)

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Alphabet2025-07-01
to 2025-09-30		23.953Not separately disclosed5.611
Definition & source

Depreciation of property and equipment

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Alphabet2025-10-01
to 2025-12-31		27.851Not separately disclosed6.040
Definition & source

Depreciation of property and equipment

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Alphabet2026-01-01
to 2026-03-31		35.674Not separately disclosed6.482
Definition & source

Depreciation of property and equipment

H1 13.586 minus Q2 7.104 = 6.482.

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Alphabet2026-04-01
to 2026-06-30		44.924Not separately disclosed7.104
Definition & source

Depreciation of property and equipment

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Amazon2025-07-01
to 2025-09-30		35.0950.35116.796
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization including capitalized content, operating lease assets, and other

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Calculation

Lease principal derived: 2025 annual 1.557 minus H1 0.821 minus Q4 0.385, using the Q4 2025 and Q2 2026 statements.

Annual / Q4 statement
H1 comparative statement
Amazon2025-10-01
to 2025-12-31		39.5220.38519.471
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization including capitalized content, operating lease assets, and other

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Amazon2026-01-01
to 2026-03-31		44.2030.46818.945
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization including capitalized content, operating lease assets, and other

H1 38.933 minus Q2 19.988 = 18.945.

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Calculation

Derived from the Q2 statement: H1 cash purchases 98.411 minus Q2 54.208; H1 lease principal 0.863 minus Q2 0.395.

Amazon2026-04-01
to 2026-06-30		54.2080.39519.988
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization including capitalized content, operating lease assets, and other

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Meta2025-07-01
to 2025-09-30		18.8290.5454.963
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Meta2025-10-01
to 2025-12-31		21.3830.7545.411
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Meta2026-01-01
to 2026-03-31		18.9970.8435.999
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization

H1 12.355 minus Q2 6.356 = 5.999.

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement
Calculation

Derived from H1 minus Q2: cash purchases 49.113 − 30.116; lease principal 1.805 − 0.962.

Meta2026-04-01
to 2026-06-30		30.1160.9626.356
Definition & source

Depreciation and amortization

Expense disclosure
Cash-flow statement

Download all four quarters with definitions and sources: JSONCSV

Read the definitions before comparing

Microsoft

Cash additions to property and equipment; company-wide. Calendar quarters correspond to FY2026 Q1–Q4.

Principal payments are not separately identified in the selected earnings cash-flow statements. Do not treat this as zero or confuse it with finance lease additions in management capex.

Latest expense disclosure: $11.022 billion — Depreciation, amortization, and other (cash-flow adjustment), 2026-04-01 to 2026-06-30. Statement.

Server policy reference: Microsoft’s FY2023 filing records a move from four to six years for server and network equipment. That dated disclosure is distinct from the later building-life change below.

Dated useful-life policy: In July 2026 management announced a FY2027 extension for datacenters and office buildings from 15 to 25 years. This is a building-life change, not a server-life disclosure. It can also reclassify some future leases. Policy at 2026-07-29.

Alphabet

Cash purchases of property and equipment; company-wide, not an AI-only series.

Finance lease principal is not separately identified in this earnings statement. Missing disclosure here does not mean no leases.

Latest expense disclosure: $7.104 billion — Depreciation of property and equipment, 2026-04-01 to 2026-06-30. Statement.

Dated useful-life policy: Servers and network equipment generally 6 years. Policy at 2025-12-31.

Amazon

Gross cash purchases of property and equipment. Proceeds from sales and incentives are not deducted; this differs from the net measure used in Amazon’s free-cash-flow calculation.

Principal repayments are a cash financing outflow, not the value of assets newly acquired under finance leases.

Latest expense disclosure: $19.988 billion — Depreciation and amortization including capitalized content, operating lease assets, and other, 2026-04-01 to 2026-06-30. Statement.

Dated useful-life policy: Servers and networking equipment 5–6 years; a subset moved from 6 to 5 years effective January 2025. Policy at 2025-12-31.

Meta

Cash purchases of property and equipment. Meta’s headline capex also includes finance lease principal; those payments are shown separately here.

Adding the separate principal payments to cash purchases reproduces Meta’s stated capex definition, but not other companies’ definitions.

Latest expense disclosure: $6.356 billion — Depreciation and amortization, 2026-04-01 to 2026-06-30. Statement.

Dated useful-life policy: Servers and network assets 5–5.5 years; most extended to 5.5 years effective January 2025. Policy at 2025-12-31.

What this comparison cannot tell you

These figures do not isolate AI assets or returns on AI investment. Depreciation measures have different boundaries and are presented with their original definitions, not added into a cross-company total. Useful lives are dated accounting estimates, not a measured lifespan for a GPU. A missing figure means it is not separately identified in the selected source, not zero.

Quarterly values derived by subtraction are marked with their calculation. Amounts are converted from millions to billions without additional estimation. The comparison does not extrapolate future quarters.

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