Alphabet's escalating spending on artificial intelligence has heightened investor concerns, with the Google parent reporting its first-ever quarterly cash burn, using US$5.9 billion in the second quarter despite its Google Cloud business posting a record 82 percent growth. Alphabet expects to spend an additional $15 billion in 2026 and signaled another increase next year. Industry-wide AI spending is expected to exceed $700 billion this year. Alphabet's shares fell about six percent in early trading on July 23, while Meta and Amazon dropped roughly 3.5 percent. Analysts expect Alphabet and Amazon to burn cash in 2026, while Meta's cash flow is projected to shrink 95.7 percent to $1.85 billion. Microsoft's cash generation for its current fiscal year is expected to total $25.39 billion, less than half the estimated $58.74 billion recorded in the previous financial year. Competition is expected to intensify further as Meta holds talks to rent computing power to Anthropic.