Microsoft

Money Moves

Largest AI infrastructure investor among hyperscalers

The four largest cloud providers—Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon—guided to over $650 billion in combined AI infrastructure spending for 2026 during their February earnings reports, up sharply from $410 billion in 2025, and have begun tapping debt markets to fund the buildout. Microsoft and Meta reported on January 28-29 with divergent market reactions: Microsoft shares plunged 12% on $37.5 billion quarterly capex, while Meta surged on $115-135 billion 2026 guidance. Alphabet stunned investors February 4 with $175-185 billion capex plans—doubling last year's spend—while Amazon topped all on February 5 with a $200 billion pledge, 50% above 2025 and $50 billion over expectations, prompting a share selloff despite strong revenue beats.

Updated Yesterday

Built World

Azure capex exceeding $80B in 2025, OpenAI exclusive partner

ChatGPT's November 2022 launch triggered the fastest infrastructure buildout in tech history. Datacenter construction spending tripled from $15 billion to $45 billion annually in just two years. Hyperscalers are now on track to spend over $1 trillion in 2026—exceeding the GDP of all but 10 countries—racing to secure power, land, and cooling systems before their rivals. Alphabet shocked markets on February 4, 2026 with guidance of $175-185 billion in 2026 capex, 55-65% above Wall Street estimates of $119.5 billion. Amazon escalated the spending war on February 5 with $200 billion 2026 capex guidance after Q4 revenue of $213.4 billion and AWS growth of 24% to $35.6 billion. Microsoft reported $37.5 billion in capex for Q2 FY2026 (just one quarter), while Meta committed $6 billion to Corning for fiber-optic cables in late January, secured 6.6 gigawatts of nuclear power through three partnerships announced in early January 2026, confirmed a multi-billion Nvidia chip deal, and on February 24 announced a $60-100 billion, 6-gigawatt AMD GPU deal—diversifying away from Nvidia dominance.

Updated Feb 24

New Capabilities

Leading enterprise AI deployment through Copilot

Microsoft's AI chief Mustafa Suleyman told the Financial Times on February 13, 2026 that most white-collar work—accounting, legal, marketing, project management—will be fully automated within 12 to 18 months. It's the most aggressive timeline yet from a major tech executive, and it comes as AI coding assistants already generate 46% of code at companies using GitHub Copilot.

Updated Feb 14

Rule Changes

Primary maintainer of Windows operating system security

Microsoft released its February 2026 Patch Tuesday update, fixing 58 security flaws including six zero-day vulnerabilities that attackers were already exploiting. The most severe allows attackers to bypass Windows SmartScreen protections, tricking users into running malicious software without seeing the usual security warnings. The United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added all six vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, giving federal agencies until March 3, 2026, to patch their systems.

Updated Feb 11

New Capabilities

Restarting Three Mile Island Unit 1 under 20-year power purchase agreement

Google spent $4.75 billion over a year ago to acquire Intersect Power, owning the power plants feeding its AI data centers. Amazon bought a nuclear-powered campus in Pennsylvania. Microsoft restarted Three Mile Island in September 2024. Now Meta has announced nuclear deals unlocking up to 6.6 gigawatts—through partnerships with Vistra, TerraPower, and Oklo—to power American AI leadership. Tech giants aren't just buying electricity. They're securing or building the grid themselves.

Updated Feb 4

Rule Changes

First company to commit to consumer electricity cost protections

For decades, American households have paid roughly the same share of electricity costs regardless of which industries were expanding. AI data centers have broken that arrangement. In 2025, regions with concentrated data center activity saw wholesale electricity prices rise as much as 267% over five years, with the PJM grid operator—serving 65 million people across 13 states—projecting $100 billion in extra consumer costs through 2033 unless something changes.

Updated Jan 13

Rule Changes

Microsoft Store removal and Windows desktop guidance push users to web/Facebook app

Meta didn’t just “sunset” a feature. On December 15, 2025, it effectively bricked Messenger’s standalone desktop apps—no more logins, no more native client—sending users back to Messenger.com or Facebook.com.

Updated Dec 14, 2025