By Daniel Sparks
Publication Date: 2026-05-19 05:41:00
Nvidia (NVDA 1.38%) reports earnings on May 20, and the conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) tends to start and end with the chipmaker. But the companies funding the AI boom — buying Nvidia’s chips and building the data centers that house them — may be a more interesting place to put new money to work right now.
Combined 2026 capital spending from Microsoft (MSFT +0.36%), Alphabet (GOOGL 0.13%)(GOOG 0.05%), and Amazon (AMZN +0.21%) is tracking to roughly $570 billion. That is an unprecedented level of capital allocation, even for big tech. And while each of these three cloud giants has its own reasons for investor excitement, the latest quarterly results suggest the better long-term ideas may not be the names investors might expect.
Here is a closer look at each one.
Image source: Getty Images.
Microsoft
Microsoft may be a software giant, but it’s also an established AI leader — and its business is benefiting from broad-based momentum.
In its fiscal third quarter of 2026 (the period ended March 31, 2026), revenue rose 18% year over year to $82.9 billion, with Azure and other cloud services climbing 40%. With help from AI demand, Microsoft Cloud revenue crossed $54 billion.
And the company’s profitability growth has been exceptional. Microsoft’s earnings per share grew 23% year over year during fiscal Q3.
Today’s Change
(0.36%) $1.50
Current Price
$423.43
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$3.1T
Day’s Range
$415.66 – $425.12
52wk Range
$356.28 – $555.45
Volume
1.7M
Avg…
