Google increases capex forecast again after cloud-driven earnings beat

July 22 : Alphabet hiked its capital spending guidance for 2026 by $15 billion after reporting the best-ever quarter of growth for its cloud computing division, driven by strong demand from AI-hungry enterprises worldwide.The search giant now expects to spend between $195 billion and $205 billion in capital expenditures, its finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said on a conference call with analysts. The company said last quarter that it planned to spend between $180 billion and $190 billion this year.Shares of the company were down more than 3 per cent in extended trading. The stock was initially volatile but mostly flat, but dipped after Ashkenazi announced the capex update.Revenue at Google Cloud rose 82 per cent to $24.8 billion during the quarter ended June, accelerating from the 63 per cent