What is data center revenue?

Data center revenue is money earned from selling products or services to data center operators. What that means varies by company:Chip companies (Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom): revenue from selling GPUs, CPUs, and networking hardwareServer hardware companies (IBM, Intel): revenue (mainly) from selling servers and related softwareCloud operators (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud): fees charged to businesses for using computing capacity

How do data centers make money?

There are three main business models:Cloud providers charge businesses for compute, storage, and networking on a usage- or subscription-based model.Co-location facilities charge customers to physically house their own servers in a managed environment.Hardware suppliers sell the chips and servers that data centers run on. AI chips are especially valuable – high-end GPU accelerators can cost tens of thousands of dollars per unit.

What is the biggest data center company?

It depends on the category:Largest data center hardware supplier: Nvidia, with $89.0 billion in data center revenue in a single quarter.Largest data center cloud operator: Amazon Web Services, with $128.7 billion in cloud revenue for calendar year 2025 — and an estimated $148.4 billion over the trailing 12 months through its most recent quarter, as growth has kept acceleratingLargest data center colocation REIT: Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX), followed by Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR)

What are data center stocks and AI data center stocks?

Data center stocks are publicly traded companies whose revenue is substantially tied to data center infrastructure. They fall into three categories:AI chip suppliers: Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, and IntelCloud operators: Amazon, Microsoft, and AlphabetData center REITs: Equinix and Digital Realty

How Much Data Center Revenue Do AI Companies Earn?

Several companies are cashing in on the billions in spending that are defining the AI era.

By Lyle Daly – Updated Aug 28, 2026 at 3:48 PM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Nvidia's data center revenue surged to $89.0 billion in Q2 2026, a 117% increase year over year.
Broadcom projects AI chip sales will more than double to $16 billion in Q3 2026.
Google Cloud led major providers with 82% revenue growth in Q2 2026, predicting higher capex.

Nvidia (NVDA +1.49%) reported $89.0 billion in data center revenue for the quarter ended July 26, 2026, up 117% year over year. Since the start of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Nvidia has captured the largest share of chip spending.

However, the largest technology companies are spending at levels that far exceed any previous build-out in the industry’s history, and that spending flows directly into the revenue of several notable AI stocks.

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AI data center revenue

Data center revenue can be measured in two groups of companies:

AI chip and hardware suppliers that make and sell the equipment data centers run on.
Cloud operators, which build and operate data centers and sell access to computing capacity.

Their revenue models are distinct, and the figures aren’t directly comparable.

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Revenue reflects each company's reported data center or AI hardware segment. Nvidia, Broadcom (AVGO +0.42%), and Microsoft (MSFT -1.22%) report on fiscal years that end on different dates than the calendar year; this piece identifies each of their results by the actual calendar dates the quarter covers rather than the company's internal fiscal-quarter label. Cloud services revenue reflects fees charged to businesses for computing capacity. This is not directly comparable to chip segment revenue.

AI chip and hardware suppliers: Revenue by company

Five companies account for the bulk of AI chip and data center hardware revenue, predominantly semiconductor sales: Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD (AMD +1.10%), Intel (INTC +0.04%), and IBM (NASDAQ:IBM).

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Nvidia

Nvidia's data center segment generated $89.0 billion for the quarter ended July 26, 2026, up 117% year over year, driven by massive demand for its Blackwell GPUs and early Vera Rubin platform shipments.
For the year ended January 25, 2026, which covers most of calendar 2025, Nvidia's data center revenue was $193.7 billion, up 68% year over year, out of $215.9 billion in total company revenue.
AI clouds, industrial, and enterprise (ACIE) revenue grew 25% quarter over quarter to $40.3 billion, up 138% year over year, compared with 13% hyperscaler revenue growth.

Broadcom

Broadcom's AI semiconductor revenue reached $10.8 billion for the quarter ended May 3, 2026, up 143% year over year. Guidance for AI semiconductor revenue for the quarter ending August 2, 2026, is $16.0 billion, which would be more than 200% year-over-year growth.
On its June 2026 earnings call, Broadcom raised its AI semiconductor revenue guidance to $56 billion for its fiscal year ending in early November 2026, up roughly 180% from the prior fiscal year, and reiterated a target of more than $100 billion for the fiscal year ending in late 2027.
Broadcom is the second-largest AI semiconductor supplier by revenue. It builds custom AI accelerators, XPUs, for specific hyperscalers rather than selling GPUs broadly.

AMD

AMD's data center revenue for the quarter ended June 27, 2026, was $6.7 billion, up 107% year over year.
Full-year data center revenue in 2025 was $16.6 billion.
AMD produces CPUs for cloud and enterprise services and AI GPUs for AI training and inference.

Intel

Intel's Data Center and AI (DCAI) revenue reached $6.3 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 59% year over year, the segment's strongest growth in years and a major driver of Intel's fastest overall revenue growth since 2011.
Its full-year DCAI revenue in 2025 was $16.9 billion.
The U.S. government invested $8.9 billion in Intel in August 2025.

IBM

IBM changed how it reports this business: rather than a standalone data center segment, its second-quarter 2026 results show Infrastructure revenue of $3.84 billion, down 7% year over year overall, as a 42% decline in Z-series mainframe sales outweighed 37% growth in Distributed Infrastructure, the AI-relevant server line. First-quarter 2026 Infrastructure revenue, reported under the prior structure, was $3.3 billion, up 15%.
Its 2025 data center revenue was $15.7 billion.
IBM does not compete in AI GPUs or cloud-scale chips, as its AI data center revenue comes primarily from hardware: Power servers and Z-series mainframes.

The most recent quarterly data shows a split picture. Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, and Intel all reported double- or triple-digit year-over-year AI revenue growth. IBM's results show that split within a single supplier: strong growth in AI-relevant servers offset by continued mainframe decline.

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Cloud operator data center revenue: AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud

Chip suppliers sell to the data center market, which is driven by hyperscalers. Amazon (AMZN -2.50%) Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Alphabet’s (GOOG -2.18%) Google Cloud are the largest buyers of AI chips and the primary cloud operators that provide AI computing capacity.

Their AI data center cloud revenue is not directly comparable to data center revenue from chip companies. It reflects what businesses pay to use infrastructure, not the cost to build it. Both figures describe revenue measured at different points of the AI supply chain.

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Amazon Web Services

AWS Q2 2026 cloud revenue was $42.2 billion, up 37% year over year, its fastest growth since 2021.
Full-year 2025 cloud revenue was approximately $128.7 billion.
Amazon reported $54.2 billion in capital expenditures in Q2 2026, primarily allocated to AWS and AI infrastructure. On its July 30, 2026 earnings call, Amazon raised its full-year 2026 capex guidance to $220 billion, up from the $200 billion figure it gave in February, saying it still won't have enough capacity to meet demand in 2026 or 2027.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud segment reported $39.3 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, growing 32% year over year, with Azure specifically growing 43%.
Azure revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, surpassed $100 billion for the first time.
Capital expenditures hit $41 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, and Microsoft expects to spend roughly $190 billion in capex for calendar 2026.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud Q2 2026 revenue was $24.8 billion, up 82% year over year, the fastest growth rate among the three major providers and an acceleration from 63% growth the prior quarter.
Full-year 2025 cloud revenue was approximately $59 billion.
Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion in July 2026, up from the $180 billion to $190 billion range it had set in April.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms (META -0.98%) are the four largest hyperscalers. After a fresh round of earnings in late July 2026, they collectively guide to roughly $745 billion in combined capital expenditures for 2026, up from the $700 billion figure earlier in the year.

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What is next for data center revenue?

Forward guidance points to continued growth in data center revenue and infrastructure spending. For example:

Nvidia reported total revenue of $96.2 billion for the quarter ended July 26, 2026, beating its prior guidance of $91 billion, and guided for $108.0 billion in total revenue for the quarter ending in late October 2026. Vera Rubin is now in full production, with racks running at partners including CoreWeave, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Nebius.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company has visibility to $1 trillion in Blackwell and Vera Rubin sales from 2025 through calendar 2027.
Broadcom expects AI chip sales to more than double year over year for the quarter ending August 2, 2026, reaching $16.0 billion, and has guided AI semiconductor revenue to $56 billion for its fiscal year ending in early November 2026.
AMD projects more than 60% annual data center segment growth over the next several years.
The four biggest hyperscalers are collectively guiding to roughly $745 billion in combined capital expenditures for 2026.
Goldman Sachs (GS -0.78%) estimated in a June 2026 note that 2027 hyperscaler capital expenditure alone could reach roughly $1.1 trillion in its base case, and as much as $1.4 trillion in a bullish scenario.

That said, there are threats to AI data center revenue. Models are becoming more capable per dollar of compute. If efficiency gains outpace demand growth, infrastructure spending could moderate. Historically, cheaper compute has expanded total usage rather than replacing it, but that is not guaranteed.

Hyperscalers are also spending at historically high levels relative to operating cash flows. If AI services revenue does not grow fast enough to justify the investment, capital expenditure plans could be revised downward, reducing demand for chip suppliers.

Companies could pull back on data center spending in the future, but at the moment, the data indicates that revenues will keep increasing.

FAQs

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Sources

Company SEC filings and earnings calls.

About the Author

Lyle Daly is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering information technology and cryptocurrency. Lyle has been a contributor at the financial services company since 2018. His work has been featured on USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, Fox Business, and Nasdaq. Before joining The Motley Fool, he wrote for financial brands including Intuit.

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@LyleDaly

Lyle Daly has positions in Alphabet, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom, Goldman Sachs Group, Intel, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

How Much Data Center Revenue Do AI Companies Earn?

Several companies are cashing in on the billions in spending that are defining the AI era.

Key Points

AI data center revenue