A Visual Capitalist chart tracks quarterly capital expenditures at five hyperscalers, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle, from the first quarter of 2022 through the fourth quarter of 2025. Combined capital spending across the group nearly tripled over that span, rising from 162 billion dollars in 2022 to 448 billion dollars in 2025.

By late 2025 the five companies were spending more than 140 billion dollars per quarter combined. Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet account for the largest share of the increase. The chart shows spending accelerating sharply after mid-2023, tracking a shift toward full-scale deployment of data centers, chips and AI-ready cloud infrastructure. Mid-2023 marks the inflection point where the curve moves from gradual growth to steep acceleration.

The figures come from Epoch AI, which builds its measure from two components pulled from SEC filings: cash spending on property, plant and equipment, and new finance leases. Epoch uses structured 10-Q and 10-K filing data rather than company-reported capital expenditure figures, since firms define capital expenditures differently on earnings calls. That approach makes the comparison across the five companies more consistent.

Epoch notes limits in the method. Some of the spending covers work outside AI, and excluded operating leases may understate total investment in productive capacity. The chart covers a period in which scale in compute, data centers and chips became a central point of competition among the largest cloud and platform companies.

Source: Visual Capitalist - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-big-tech-ai-spending/