This week has been an enormous one for the stock market, with four of the world's biggest tech companies reporting earnings. Amazon (AMZN +0.76%), Meta Platforms (META 8.49%), Alphabet (GOOG +9.97%) (GOOGL +10.06%), and Microsoft (MSFT 3.90%) each announced quarterly numbers on April 29 after the closing bell.
The message from these companies, each a Magnificent Seven tech giant, is key for two reasons. First, they've been driving S&P 500 performance in recent years, so what they have to say may set the tone for the entire market. And second, as leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) -- a technology seen as being the next big thing -- they could be among the top stock market winners in the years to come.
So, of these four tech leaders, which ones stood out in a positive way? Each reported generally good news, and importantly, they delivered revenue growth -- and at levels that beat analysts' estimates. This is positive as it suggests that the AI opportunity is delivering on its promises. Still, in my opinion, two of these players showed themselves to be the best of the bunch. Let's check out the details.
Image source: Getty Images.
Alphabet
Alphabet, the owner of the Google platform, including Search and Cloud, has been investing heavily in AI -- and the entire business is benefiting. We can see this in the latest earnings period. The company's own AI model, Gemini, is improving Google Search and advertising results, prompting advertisers to spend more to reach us, their target audience, here.
The Gemini app helped consumer AI plans deliver its best quarter ever, and Gemini Enterprise is booming, too. On top of this, customers are rushing to Alphabet for its in-house chips as well as AI products and services from others, such as chip giant Nvidia. As a result, Alphabet delivered a 22% increase in revenue to more than $109 billion in the quarter, and this marked its 11th straight quarter of double-digit growth.
Importantly, revenue from products built on Alphabet's generative AI models soared almost 800%, and demand for compute is so high that Alphabet isn't able to fulfill it. The company said its revenue numbers would have been even higher in the quarter if it had been able to meet this demand. And with this in mind, the company continues to invest to maximize its revenue opportunities over time. Alphabet says capital spending next year will "significantly increase" from this year's level. For reference, the company expects capex to be in the range of $180 billion to $190 billion this year.
All of this is positive as it directly addresses one of investors' biggest concerns: that the AI revenue opportunity may not justify today's spending levels. Here, Alphabet's latest figures show that investment is bearing fruit, and this is likely to continue.
Amazon
Amazon, like Alphabet, is gaining from its presence in AI across its businesses -- from e-commerce to cloud. But here I'll focus on the cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), given the tremendous growth in recent times and the opportunity ahead.
AWS revenue rose 28% to more than $37 billion year over year -- and it delivered a $2 billion increase from the last quarter, marking its biggest fourth quarter to first quarter increase ever. This business, like Google Cloud, offers customers a wide range of AI products and services, and a key growth area that has emerged is the sales of Amazon's own house-designed chips.
Amazon has designed the Graviton central processing unit (CPU) and the Trainium AI chip, and these products have been gathering tremendous momentum. Why would customers choose these over those of a top chip designer like Nvidia or Advanced Micro Devices? The Amazon chips focus on balancing price and performance, offering a solid solution for the cost-conscious customer. The company says Trainium revenue commitments top $225 billion, and both generations of the chip are highly subscribed or reserved.
On top of this, a revision to Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI means that AWS can now offer OpenAI models. This is positive as a broad selection of models means a wider range of customers' projects may be accomplished on AWS.
This focus on selection -- from AI models to chips -- is driving enormous growth at Amazon, and as more and more companies apply AI to their needs, Amazon may be on track to win.
