Big Tech Returns Smallest Share of Cash to Shareholders in 15 Years as Super-Intelligence Spending Squeezes Buybacks
America's biggest technology companies generated record amounts of cash in the first nine months of 2026, yet returned the smallest share of it to shareholders in at least 15 years. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle returned 9.3% of the cash their businesses generated as dividends and buybacks in the first three quarters of the year, down from 27.4% a year earlier, according to a Reuters analysis of LSEG data and company financial reports.
Where the money went is clear in the figures: operating cash flow at the five companies rose 29% to a record $542.9 billion, but capital spending, driven by the super-intelligence (SI) build-out, doubled to $556.9 billion, exceeding operating cash flow for the first time in data going back to 2011. That left the five with a combined free cash flow deficit of $14 billion, against a surplus of $143.5 billion a year earlier.
Buybacks took the hardest hit. The five companies cut repurchases by 83% to $13.6 billion, from $81.8 billion a year earlier, while dividends rose to $37 billion from $33.9 billion. Alphabet and Meta have not repurchased a single share in 2026 after buying back $66.5 billion between them in the first nine months of last year; Amazon pays no dividend and has not bought back shares since 2022. With combined free cash flow negative, the five companies' $50.6 billion in payouts was effectively funded from cash reserves, borrowing or share sales.
Amazon's capital spending of $75.9 billion in the third quarter was almost 80% more than the $42.4 billion its operations generated, and it raised $48.1 billion of long-term debt in the quarter. Alphabet's free cash flow was also negative, and it raised about $12.4 billion from share sales and $29 billion from debt. Analysts note that buybacks have long flattered per-share earnings: Alphabet reduced its share count by 9.5% between the end of 2020 and 2025 through buybacks, worth roughly 2% a year in earnings-per-share terms. Without that boost, per-share earnings must come from actual profit growth, just as depreciation charges on new data centers start to rise. Amazon says it still expects about $220 billion of capital spending this year, and the other companies have signalled further increases.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Google 位于 Iowa 州 Council Bluffs 的数据中心航拍，大型科技公司的资本开支正加速投向这类设施。Chad Davis 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / An aerial view of Google's data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Big Tech capital spending is increasingly flowing into facilities like this one. Photo by Chad Davis, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
