Google's AI Spending Leaves $5.9 Billion Cash Short: How Markets Reacted

Google broke its record of generating more cash than it spent every quarter this year. Alphabet spent $44.9 billion on AI infrastructure - $490 million daily - while only generating $39.1 billion in cash. This marked its first negative free cash flow quarter since 2004. Google Cloud revenue surged 82%, while total revenue rose 24% to $119.8 billion. The stock fell 4.24% after raising its full-year spending plan by $15 billion. Google raised $49.6 billion in stock sales and $20.3 billion in bonds, increasing long-term debt to $98.2 billion from $16 billion a year ago.

Google's aggressive AI investment strategy may pressure its market value. Investors will closely monitor the long-term impact of this borrowing strategy.