Forget the AI Hype. Microsoft and Alphabet Just Showed Their Cards. Here Is Which Hand We Think Is Stronger

Quick Read

• Microsoft (MSFT) posted $82.88B in Q1 revenue with Azure growing 40%, while AI business surpassed a $37B annual run rate.

• Alphabet (GOOGL) reported $109.89B revenue with Google Cloud jumping 63% and backlog nearly doubling to over $460B, though net income was boosted by $36.91B in unrealized equity gains.

• Microsoft is betting on enterprise lock-in through its cloud and AI infrastructure, while Alphabet is pursuing a broader strategy spanning cloud, search, consumer subscriptions, and physical AI via Waymo—with the test being whether their doubled capex spending converts backlog into revenue fast enough to justify the investment.

• The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and Google wasn’t one of them. Get them here FREE.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) both reported on April 29, 2026, and the earnings reports reveal two AI giants pulling on different levers. Satya Nadella leaned into agentic enterprise…