- Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast by $15 billion, signaling strong demand for AI infrastructure and data centers.
- Memory stocks surged in overnight trading, with Micron leading gains of 2.5%, while SanDisk, Western Digital and SK Hynix rose about 2% each.
- Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion in the June quarter, its first since going public in 2004, as capex more than doubled to $44.92 billion.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly thanked Micron for prioritizing memory chip allocation to the electric vehicle company, citing “pretty insane pricing” in the market.
Memory stocks jumped in overnight trading late Wednesday after Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported a sharp increase in quarterly capital expenditures and raised its full-year forecast. The robust pace of investment is a positive signal for chipmakers, with much of the spending expected to fund AI infrastructure and new data centers.
Micron led the gains, rising 2.5% in the overnight session, while shares of SanDisk, Western Digital and SK Hynix were up about 2% each. The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) gained 2.6% as of the last reading. Memory chips remain in short supply and are among the biggest bottlenecks in the rapid buildout of AI data centers.
Alphabet on Wednesday said its June quarter CapEx doubled from a year ago to $44.92 billion, bringing the investment so far in 2026 to $78.6 billion. The company updated its full-year CapEx guidance range to $195 billion to $205 billion, up from the previous estimate of $180 billion to $190 billion. “The increase in the range is primarily due to an acceleration in the delivery of capacity to meet growing demand,” CFO Anat Ashkenazi said on the earnings call.
Consequently, Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion for the quarter, marking the first time the company posted negative quarterly free cash flow since going public in 2004. GOOGL fell 2.3% overnight, with the heavy investment outlook overshadowing better-than-expected second-quarter sales and profit.
During Tesla’s earnings call, CEO Elon Musk praised Micron for prioritizing memory chip allocation to the electric vehicle company. “I actually I’d also like to thank Micron for giving us the memory allocation. They’re going to make some very tough decisions on memory allocation, and we really appreciate Micron making room for Tesla in the years to come,” he said.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment was ‘neutral’ for MU and SNDK, and ‘bearish’ for SKHY and DRAM. One trader posted, “So Micron is not only benefiting from an increase in DRAM pricing but at the same a further surge in Demand and CAPEX Spend! Only a complete fool would be bearish here!”
✅ Follow BITNEWSBOT on Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X.com, and Google News for instant updates.
