SpaceX faces a $100bn+ lockup expiry; DeepSeek plans a sharp hike to API pricing | Daily News RecapAug 6 at 03:25 AMGOOGN+0.54%GOOGM+0.58%
AI compute sector sentiment rebounds; First global HBF storage standard goes live | Daily News RecapAug 4 at 03:27 AMAMZN+1.32%603020-1.91%
MSFT FY4Q26 First Take. Amid an earnings deluge this read is a touch late, but the takeaway is clear: the leadership rotation has swung back in Microsoft's favor. Four key points:1) Azure re-acceleration: the Jun quarter grew 43% YoY. Guidance points to 45% next quarter, with 2H growth running ahead of 1H.2) Capex did not spike: spend was $41bn this quarter, with next quarter guided to $50bn. That implies CY 4Q at approx. $52bn and keeps the run-rate on track for CY2026 capex of ~$200bn including leases. For FY2027, management still guides to YoY growth.A small wrinkle: by extending useful lives on long-duration assets, some items now qualify as operating leases and no longer count toward capex. This technically lowers CY2026 reported capex to ~$175bn.3) Making money: with AI a bigger mix in cloud, GPM should have compressed, yet the actual pullback was modest. Higher revenue amplified operating leverage and drove a sharp decline in opex ratio, helped by ~5k headcount reductions this fiscal year. As a result, margins rose rather than fell.Note an important timing point: Microsoft began ramping capex in 2Q23 and has kept it elevated for three years, but D&A remains light, with the latest quarter even down YoY. Early capex skewed to long-lived assets and useful lives were extended this time, delaying expense recognition. Starting in 3Q25, however, shorter-cycle assets like servers will be purchased in size, so the depreciation headwind has yet to fully bite.4) Cash to spare: unlike Alphabet, Tesla, and Meta, whose aggressive spend has strained cash flows, Microsoft's cash capex excluding finance leases remains in the $30–35bn range. Based on the qualitative capex guide and revenue trajectory, free cash flow should stay positive in the new fiscal year.Overall, Microsoft posted a 'help-yourself' quarter in a market that is turning cautious on AI infrastructure spending elsewhere. Growth, margins, and cash are all in place, and in today's setup and risk appetite, the long-awaited rotation has finally come back to Microsoft. $Microsoft(MSFT.US)Jul 30 at 01:29 AMGOOG+0.67%GOOGL+0.91%
$Meta Platforms(META.US) announced on its website a strategic partnership with BlackRock to invest in a data center campus. The two will form a JV to own the El Paso data center.To be clear, this is not a brand-new build; it is one of Meta’s five in-house data centers planned years ago, located in El Paso, TX, with 1GW of capacity. It is slated to go live in 2028. So the news marks incremental progress within the existing campus plan.The campus is expected to cost $14bn in total (land, buildings, grid, cooling systems, etc.). BlackRock will shoulder ~80% of the funding, and Meta ~20%. The setup closely mirrors the Meta–Blue Owl structure announced last year; see Dolphin Research’s schematic.Overall, this structure reduces Meta’s visible on-balance-sheet burden while financing what is essentially a 1P, in-house data center. Yesterday, in our capex take on $Alphabet - C(GOOG.US), we also highlighted its off-balance-sheet approach to scaling compute capacity.This has become a common Big Tech playbook to meet infra needs without spooking the market. We should incorporate these off-balance-sheet obligations into risk assessments. That said, this works mainly for giants with strong core businesses which, beyond providing guarantees, are effectively monetizing their high-quality credit.Jul 28 at 06:15 AMOWL-1.85%GOOG+0.67%
GOOGL on Trial: market swings or an investment binge to blame?Jul 27 at 08:39 AMGOOG+0.67%GOOGL+0.91%
INTC: CPU price hikes as a 'stopgap', turnaround still hinges on foundry?Jul 23 at 09:50 PMTSM-0.37%INTC-4.06%
Alphabet Inc. DEP SHS REPSTG 1/20TH INT B declares $0.60 dividendbusinessinsider·Jul 23 at 01:56 AMGOOGN+0.54%
