Cloud Is King: Why $GOOGL Is the Only Big Tech Name Retail Traders Actually Want to Buy Right Now
Google Cloud's 63% YoY growth has retail traders picking winners in a very messy earnings week
Ticker Ratings
Let's set the scene: Big Tech earnings week dropped like a pop quiz nobody studied for. $GOOGL is the clear valedictorian — $109.9B in revenue against a $107.1B estimate, Google Cloud up 63% year-over-year to $20B, and Gemini Enterprise active users climbing 40% quarter-over-quarter. Shares popped roughly 6% after hours. Bloomberg's earnings coverage basically had confetti emoji energy for Alphabet specifically.
Meanwhile, $META raised its 2026 CapEx guidance to a jaw-dropping $125–$145 billion — citing data center costs and component pricing — and the market responded the way you'd expect: a roughly 6.5% after-hours drop. Analysts are openly asking how Meta monetizes its AI spend without a cloud business to show for it, which is a fair and deeply uncomfortable question. $MSFT actually beat on Azure cloud revenue (39% vs 38.2% expected) but CapEx came in light, sending shares on a slightly confusing up-then-sideways journey.
Oh, and while all this was happening, the Fed had its most divided vote since 1992 — an 8-4 split, oil pushing past $100/barrel, and Powell announcing he's staying on as Fed governor like a substitute teacher who just decided to move into the school. Big week. Understatement of the year.