Alphabet: AI demand still outstrips supply despite raising 2026 CapEx to $195-205B

Radhika Anilkumar Nadig Sun, July 26, 2026 at 11:00 AM PDT | 5 min read

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(Editor's note: Alphabet's share moves were updated under Price Action.)

Alphabet Inc. said demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) services continues to outpace available computing capacity, despite raising its capital spending outlook.

Demand Continues to Outpace Available Capacity

The Google parent company raised its 2026 capital expenditure outlook to $195 billion to $205 billion, up from its prior forecast of $180 billion to $190 billion.

During Alphabet's second-quarter earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai said Google continues to face capacity constraints as demand for AI products and cloud services exceeds available infrastructure.

"Demand for our models is translating to strong token usage across developers and enterprise customers, and we continue to be supply constrained, a sign of momentum and rapid adoption." — Sundar Pichai

Expands Capacity to Meet AI Demand

Alphabet plans to expand its use of third-party capacity in the third quarter as a bridging strategy while it continues building out internal capacity.

"We're still in a supply constraint environment. I think we've said this now for multiple quarters in a row, we are seeing very strong demand, both from external cloud customers as well as across the business." — Anat Ashkenazi, CFO

Wall Street Divided on AI Spending

Alphabet's higher AI spending outlook became one of the biggest talking points after earnings, with Wall Street split between concerns over rising capital expenditures and optimism that accelerating cloud demand justifies the investment.

• Investor Gary Black said the higher spending could "potentially trigger a new CapEx arms race."
• Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management called Google Cloud's performance "the most important number" in the quarter, pointing to strong enterprise AI demand.

Earnings Beat Wall Street Estimates

Alphabet reported second-quarter revenue of $119.80 billion, topping analyst estimates of $116.82 billion, according to Benzinga Pro.

The company also reported second-quarter earnings of $9.11 per share, beating estimates of $2.87.

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

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