Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon face scrutiny over earnings and AI spending

Results still expected

Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon must present their quarterly results in the window of October 28 and 29, 2026, reports Crypto Briefing. This calendar coincides with the meeting of the US Federal Reserve. The figures circulating before the publications are estimates by analysts or objectives previously communicated by the companies. They do not describe revenues already realized and published. The challenge will be to compare the actual accounts to these expectations, then to examine the perspectives formulated by the management.

The three groups participate in the race for artificial intelligence infrastructure, notably through their cloud activities. They must finance data centers, computing equipment and the capacities necessary for the services offered to their clients. An increase in demand can support revenues, but it is accompanied by significant spending. Revenue alone therefore does not allow the profitability of this expansion to be evaluated. Margins and cash flows provide complementary insight.

Azure as a comparison point

For Microsoft, the pace of Azure will be confronted with a growth objective of 45% at constant exchange rate, cited by Crypto Briefing. This measure seeks to neutralize the effect of currency variations on the comparison. It does not mean that the entirety of Microsoft's revenue must progress at the same pace. Azure constitutes a particular activity of the group; its evolution must be read with the reporting perimeter retained and the indications given during the previous publication.

Growth at constant exchange rate allows better isolation of the operational evolution of an international activity. The revenues recorded remain nevertheless expressed in the currency of presentation of the accounts and can undergo exchange rate effects. The two readings are not interchangeable. Similarly, exceeding a sales forecast does not guarantee that profits progress in the same proportions. The cost of equipment, energy and the operation of services intervenes between revenues and the result.

Investments and financial conditions

Investment spending occupies a central place in this sequence. They correspond notably to equipment and infrastructure that must serve over several fiscal years. Their amount informs about the financial effort engaged; their return depends on the future use of capacities and the revenues they will allow to generate. For cloud groups, the comparison between commercial growth and new investments helps to understand the economic trajectory. It does not reduce to mechanically opposing a high spending to a disappointing result.

The Fed intervenes in the same calendar, which can complicate the reading of stock market reactions. Interest rates influence financing and the valuation of future revenues, while quarterly accounts bring information specific to each company. A variation in price can reflect these two sets of news. The expected announcements will therefore allow distinguishing the results already obtained, the objectives for the next quarters and the monetary conditions. None of these publications constitutes, in advance, a guarantee of performance for technology markets or crypto.