AI Capex vs. US Defense Spending
Big Tech’s 2026 AI capital expenditure, by company, set against the US national-defense budget. Combined hyperscaler AI capex is now roughly two-thirds of defense spending — and growing far faster.
Planned capital expenditure, USD billions. The four largest hyperscalers alone plan to spend well over half a trillion dollars.
View data & sources →USD billions, 2026. Combined hyperscaler AI capex is now roughly two-thirds of US national-defense spending — and closing fast.
View data & sources →Data table
| series | usd_bn | company | source_ref | value_basis | label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| capex_breakdown | 200 | Amazon | valueaddvc-capex | Amazon leads 2026 AI infrastructure capex at ~$200B | |
| capex_breakdown | 185 | Alphabet | valueaddvc-capex | Alphabet (Google) ~$185B 2026 capex | |
| capex_breakdown | 125 | Meta | valueaddvc-capex | Meta ~$125B 2026 capex | |
| capex_breakdown | 120 | Microsoft | valueaddvc-capex | Microsoft ~$120B 2026 capex | |
| capex_vs_defense | 675 | futurum-capex | Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle committed ~$660–690B capex in 2026 (midpoint ~$675B), +77% YoY from ~$410B | Big Tech AI capex 2026 (5 hyperscalers) |
1 more row + CSV download
The full 6-row dataset, one-click CSV export, and the AI-ready context file are free with an account. Prefer to verify it yourself? The full methodology and sources are published below.
Methodology & sources
Last updated: Jul 17, 2026Methodology
Two source-backed charts: 2026 AI capex by company ($B) and combined hyperscaler AI capex versus the US FY2026 defense budget ($B). Per-company figures (Amazon ~$200B, Alphabet ~$185B, Meta ~$125B, Microsoft ~$120B) trace to the cited capex analysis. The aggregate ~$675B is the midpoint of the $660–690B range for the five largest US cloud/AI providers (incl. Oracle), up ~77% YoY from ~$410B. Defense ~$1T reflects $838.7B appropriations + $150B via reconciliation (topline cited near $1.05T). CAVEAT: company capex is largely but not exclusively AI. The popular claim that tech will out-spend the military is a forward projection — in 2026 defense is still the larger number. Re-verified 2026-07-17.
Sources
Comparisons are informative, not definitive. See each source for definitions and limits.
How relevant was this information?
Continue researching
Co-related indexes
Related articles
No articles in this sector yet. Browse all research →