Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter
One of these companies is not like the others.
If you’ve been following the Big Tech companies’ earnings reports, you know that they’re pouring more than ever into capital expenditure to pursue their AI futures.
Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft all spent record sums last quarter on purchases of property and equipment — largely tied AI chips and data centers. And for the companies that offered forward-looking guidance, their capex plans for the year blew analysts’ already generous estimates out of the water.
Amazon expects its 2026 capex to surge to $200 billion. Google is aiming for $175 billion to $185 billion. Meta estimates it will spend between $115 billion and $135 billion. All of those figures came in well above expectations and, for the most part, have weighed on their stocks. Microsoft didn’t give a formal 2026 capex outlook, but if its peers are any indication, spending will likely exceed the roughly $114 billion Wall Street expects for the calendar year.
Of the Big Tech companies, just one stands apart this earnings season. Apple’s capital expenditure, already just a fraction of its peers, actually declined in the December quarter from a year earlier.
For better or worse, Apple has struck its own path with AI. As we’ve argued before, it’s embracing AI but is not an AI company. Instead, it’s chosen a hybrid model, relying on both first- and third-party data centers — a move that keeps a significant amount of infrastructure spending off its balance sheet. And while Apple has said it expects capex to increase as it invests more heavily in AI, particularly to support its Private Cloud Compute, those outlays remain minimal compared with its peers.
You can see that approach reflected in Apple’s decision to use Google’s Gemini, rather than an in-house model, to power the next generation of Siri and Apple Intelligence.
The Google deal, reportedly worth about $1 billion a year, gives Apple access to a top-tier AI model for pennies on the dollar compared to what other Big Tech companies are spending to build their own.
Of course, it also means Apple won’t fully own a technology that some see as powering the next industrial revolution. But if that revolution fails to materialize — or takes longer than expected — Apple won’t be left holding the most expensive bag in Silicon Valley history.
