U.S. technology giants are increasing artificial intelligence spending as stronger cloud growth and rising AI demand push the biggest hyperscalers to expand capacity. As of Aug. 11, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft had raised their combined 2026 capital-spending plans to $720 billion to $745 billion from $695 billion to $725 billion, industry data showed. Amazon lifted its full-year capital expenditure outlook to $220 billion from $200 billion, Google raised its range to $195 billion to $205 billion from $180 billion to $190 billion, and Meta increased the low end of its forecast to $130 billion from $125 billion while keeping the top end at $145 billion. Microsoft’s figure fell to $175 billion from $190 billion, but the change reflected data-center lease contracts being treated as operating leases rather than capex, leaving its actual investment level unchanged. The spending increases came as Google, Microsoft and Amazon posted accelerating cloud growth and signaled that the AI race is shifting from model development toward enterprise AI, AI agents and the cloud and data-center buildout needed to run them. Google Cloud reported second-quarter revenue of $24.8 billion, up 82% from a year earlier, while its backlog swelled to $514 billion. Azure posted 43% quarterly revenue growth and surpassed $100 billion in annual revenue on a fiscal-year basis for the first time. Amazon Web Services reported 37% second-quarter revenue growth, its fastest pace in 18 quarters. Meta’s second-quarter revenue rose 28% to $60.8 billion, with advertising revenue up 27% to $59.4 billion, suggesting AI improved recommendations and ad efficiency. The latest earnings also pushed back against doubts over whether AI spending is sustainable, with Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft all reporting double-digit year-on-year revenue growth of 24%, 28%, 20% and 18%, respectively. Even so, the companies do not separately disclose revenue and profit directly tied to AI infrastructure, leaving investors to infer returns from broader cloud-segment margins. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets, Oppenheimer and HSBC said margin pressure, the risk of overbuilding capacity and customer concentration among companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic remain key issues to watch. Geopolitical risks are also emerging as a new variable after CNN reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had included data centers of U.S. companies such as Google, Microsoft and Nvidia on a target list.