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Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai
(Alain Jocard/Getty Images)

Unpacking Alphabet’s $75 billion capex plans

A spending spree on data centers, custom chips, and undersea cables.

Jon Keegan
2/5/25 12:11PM

Investors were disappointed with Alphabet’s Q4 earnings yesterday, evidenced by the stock’s subsequent tumble.

While Alphabet delivered fairly strong earnings, the issue was a slowdown in revenue growth. Sales grew 12% from Q4 2023, which is far below last quarter’s 15% growth rate.

But there were some interesting details from the earnings call. Despite expectations that 2025’s capital expenditures would be a slight bump up from 2024’s $52.5 billion, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told investors that the company has since upped that number to $75 billion. This comes just weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company would spend up to $65 billion on AI-related capex. Big Tech companies are all following suit with jumbo-sized capex plans for 2025.

What is Alphabet gong to be spending that big pile of money on? According to CFO Anat Ashkenazi, “The majority of that is going to go towards our technical infrastructure, which includes servers and data centers.”

Ashkenazi said that current computing demand is exceeding supply and the company is racing to increase capacity. Pichai said that in 2024, the company broke ground on new data center campuses in South Carolina, Indiana, and Missouri. The company also announced plans for seven new subsea cables to strengthen global infrastructure.

Much like the rest of the industry, Alphabet is also investing in its own Trillium TPU AI chips, lest they become too dependent on market leader Nvidia. But they are still making sure they can sell cloud computing access to Nvidia’s popular products.

“We also continue our strong relationship with Nvidia . We recently delivered their H200-based platforms to customers. And just last week, we were the first to announce a customer running on the highly anticipated Blackwell platform.”

Pichai said that Google Cloud customers are using “eight times the compute capacity for training and inferencing than they were 18 months ago.”

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$100B
Nia Warfield
3h

Alphabet’s YouTube said it’s paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the past four years — cementing its place as one of the internet’s biggest talent magnets. The Google-owned platform, which turned 20 this year, credited connected TVs as a major driver of growth.

YouTube said the number of channels earning over $100,000 from TV screens has surged over 45% in the past year alone. Meanwhile, ad revenue for YouTube grew double digits in Q2 to $9.8 billion, topping the Street’s estimates.

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Nia Warfield
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Webtoon surges after Disney plans to invest and partner in digital push for brands like Marvel and “Star Wars”

Webtoon Entertainment shares jumped 36% in premarket trading Tuesday after Disney said it’s buying a 2% stake in the digital comics platform. The investment is part of a deal to bring Marvel, “Star Wars,” Pixar, and 20th Century Studios titles into a new streaming-style app run by Webtoon. The offering will launch in Q4 across the US and nine other countries.

“With a new platform that will combine our product and technical expertise with Disney’s full comic catalog, we’re giving new and longtime fans all over the world a new way to discover these legendary characters and stories,” said Junkoo Kim, founder and CEO of Webtoon Entertainment.

The platform is expected to host more than 35,000 titles, mixing archived comics with Webtoon originals. Disney+ perks could also be on the table, giving the service a natural tie-in to Disney’s broader streaming play.

The arrangement isn’t final yet: Disney’s stake and the platform details are still under negotiation. But with Webtoon’s ~155 million monthly active users, the partnership gives Disney a mobile-friendly channel for its comics while Webtoon gains the ultimate IP access.

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Amazon is testing adding GM electric vans to its EV delivery fleet dominated by Rivian

Rivian may have some competition in its electric delivery van division: Bloomberg reports that Amazon is testing a small number of GM’s BrightDrop vans for its fleet.

According to Amazon, the test currently only includes a dozen of the vehicles. Amazon’s fleet also contains EVs from Ford, Stellantis, and Mercedes-Benz.

GM debuted BrightDrop in 2021, but the vehicles have struggled to sell and piled up on GM lots due to high prices and steep competition. GM began offering up to 40% rebates on the vehicles this year.

The test comes as Rivian struggles through tariffs and the end of EV tax credits. Earlier this year, it lowered its annual delivery outlook by about 13%. As of June, Amazon said it has more than 25,000 Rivian vans across the US. Earlier this week, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said the company is still on track to deliver 100,000 vans to Amazon by 2030 and is “thinking about what comes beyond” that initial target.

GM has sold 1,592 BrightDrop vans through the first half of the year, more than the full-year total it sold in 2024.

Amazon Tests GM EV Delivery Vans in Bid to Meet Climate Goals

Amazon Tests GM EV Delivery Vans in Bid to Meet Climate Goals

GM debuted BrightDrop in 2021, but the vehicles have struggled to sell and piled up on GM lots due to high prices and steep competition. GM began offering up to 40% rebates on the vehicles this year.

The test comes as Rivian struggles through tariffs and the end of EV tax credits. Earlier this year, it lowered its annual delivery outlook by about 13%. As of June, Amazon said it has more than 25,000 Rivian vans across the US. Earlier this week, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said the company is still on track to deliver 100,000 vans to Amazon by 2030 and is “thinking about what comes beyond” that initial target.

GM has sold 1,592 BrightDrop vans through the first half of the year, more than the full-year total it sold in 2024.

GETTING
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Chris Stokel-Walker9/12/25

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