Hardware & Networking Cloud Capex Wrap-Up: GOOGL Kickstarts C2Q26 Earnings with a Bullish Capex Signal

Research evidence excerpt

Hardware & Networking Cloud Capex Wrap-Up: GOOGL Kickstarts C2Q26 Earnings with a Bullish Capex Signal

J P M O R G A N North America Equity Research

22 July 2026

Hardware & Networking

Cloud Capex Wrap-Up: GOOGL Kickstarts C2Q26

Earnings with a Bullish Capex Signal

Alphabet was the first of the four major U.S. hyperscalers to report C2Q26 IT Hardware/ Telecom & Networking

earnings, with the print reinforcing the thesis that AI infrastructure spending Equipment

remains firmly in expansion mode, cutting against recent concerns around capex Joseph Cardoso AC

sustainability. Management not only raised the full-year capex outlook to growth (1-212) 622-9036

of +120% y/y in 2026 (or +$110 bn y/y) to meet accelerating demand, but also joseph.cardoso@jpmchase.com

notably reiterated its expectation for capex to increase “significantly” again in Manmohanpreet Singh

2027, all while underscoring its continued visibility into attractive returns. (1-212) 622-4527

Importantly, the demand signals underpinning that spend are equally constructive, manmohanpreet.singh@jpmchase.com

with cloud revenue expanding +82% y/y (vs.+63% in C1Q26 and +32% a year Marc Vitenzon

(1-212) 622-3342

ago), cloud backlog growing by more than +$50 bn q/q to $514 bn, and marc.vitenzon@jpmchase.com

management reiterating that it remains supply-constrained across the board, so

Akanksh Chauhan

much so that it plans to expand its use of third-party capacity in C3Q26 as a bridging (1-212) 622-0045

strategy while it builds out more internal capacity. Relative to the merchant TPU akanksh.chauhan@jpmorgan.com

opportunity, the company remains on track, delivering its first shipments in 2Q26 J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

and reiterating that only a small portion of existing sales agreements will be