Microsoft reported its fiscal fourth quarter on Wednesday 29 July with $41bn of quarterly capital expenditure, roughly two thirds of it short-lived assets such as processors1. Chief financial officer Amy Hood said extending the assumed useful life of data-centre buildings from 15 to 25 years, and shifting new capacity from finance leases to operating leases, puts Microsoft's calendar-2026 capital spending at approximately $175bn.
Microsoft's widely quoted $255bn to $260bn guidance covers its fiscal 2027, which runs from July 2026 to June 2027. Adding that number to calendar-year figures for the other three companies inflates the combined total by roughly $80 billion, and several outlets did exactly that this week. A useful-life assumption is not a rounding convention either: stretching a building from 15 years to 25 spreads the same concrete over ten more years of depreciation, which flatters reported earnings without changing a single pour.
Meta reported quarterly capital expenditure of $31.08bn including finance-lease principal payments, against $17.0bn a year earlier, and narrowed full-year guidance to $130bn-$145bn from $125bn-$145bn2. The ceiling did not move. Alphabet raised to $195bn-$205bn on 22 July.
Add the four on a like-for-like calendar-2026 basis and the range runs $720bn to $745bn, a midpoint near $732bn. We reported $725bn for the same four in May. Each individual raise reads as acceleration; the aggregate has moved about one per cent, because Meta's narrowing and Microsoft's correctly framed calendar figure offset the raises elsewhere. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are redistributing roughly $732bn between themselves rather than adding to it.
