Google parent company Alphabet plans to double its capital expenditure budget this year, estimating it will spend up to $185 billion to solidify its position at the forefront of the global AI boom.
By comparison, its capital expenditure budget last year was about $92 billion.
"We're seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board," Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told analysts on the company's earnings call Wednesday. Alphabet's aggressive spending push is expected to "meet customer demand and capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us as AI continues to drive an expansionary moment."
The company reported an 18% revenue spike in the final quarter of 2025, an increase largely driven by growth in its digital-advertising and cloud-computing units as it ramped up spending on building out Gemini, its AI platform.
Google's spending growth comes as some other tech companies increase spending to compete in the AI race as they invest tens of billions of dollars to develop models and the data centers necessary to operate them.
Fellow tech giant Microsoft is on track to spend up to $120 billion on investments such as computer processing and data centers through its fiscal year, which is scheduled to end June 30. That's nearly double the previous years' budget, and capex spending in the most recent quarter alone jumped by more than 65%.
Meta has also doubled down on its AI spending even as it and other tech companies have found themselves increasingly defending their staggeringly high investments.
The Menlo Park, California-based social media giant — which oversees platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — plans to spend as much as $135 billion this year on data centers and other AI infrastructure around the world — about 20% higher than analysts’ expectations, and nearly double the amount it spent in 2025.
Alphabet has had a comparatively easier time justifying its AI spending plans to Wall Street, especially after the launch of its updated Gemini app last year helped boost its monthly user count to more than 750 million, up from 650 million in October 2025.
"The investment we have been making in AI is already translating into strong performance across the business," Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said on the company's earnings call. "Our successful execution, coupled with strong performance, reinforces our conviction to make the investments required to further capitalize on the AI opportunity."