Alphabet stock slides despite crushing earnings as massive AI spending spooks investors

Alphabet just posted the kind of quarter most companies would frame and hang on the wall. Revenue of $119.8 billion, a 24% year-over-year jump, comfortably clearing Wall Street’s $116.5 billion consensus. Google Cloud grew 82% year-over-year to $24.8 billion, blowing past the $22.4 billion analysts had penciled in. Operating margins expanded to 34%. Investors responded by selling the stock. GOOGL closed at $341.91 on July 22, already down 1.2% on the day, then dropped another 3.7% to 4.9% in extended trading. The culprit: a capital expenditure guidance hike that made even the most AI-bullish analysts do a double take. The AI spending problem Here’s the thing about Alphabet’s capex situation. The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance to between $195 billion and $205 billion, up from an already eye-watering prior range of $180 billion to $190 billion. In the second quarter alone, Alphabet spent $44.9 billion on capital expenditures, double what it spent in the same period last year. Why crypto markets should pay attention Alphabet isn’t a crypto company, obviously. But the dynamics at play here ripple directly into digital asset markets in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. S...