Alphabet and Amazon are each pouring roughly 200 billion dollars into AI data centers, but their capex strategies look nothing alike, and one company is already translating that spending into growth at a pace that should make the other nervous.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) both reported strong second quarters in late July while investing record amounts into AI data centers. Alphabet guided 2026 capex of $175 billion to $185 billion, and Amazon plans roughly $200 billion. So far, Alphabet is turning that money into growth faster.
Google Cloud Sprints While AWS Leans on Scale
Google Cloud revenue jumped 82% to $24.77 billion, up from 63% growth in Q1. That is the clearest sign so far that data-center dollars are becoming sales. CEO Sundar Pichai noted that nearly 90% of the Fortune 100 now use Gemini Enterprise. Search and other revenue still grew 17%, so AI features appear to be feeding the core ad engine.
Amazon’s advantage is…
