Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spending climbs

Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by Zigurd on Thursday July 23, 2026 @09:54AM (#49021642)

Looking at cash burn is looking at the wrong end of the horse. Some companies, like Meta, have burned huge piles of cash in pursuit of, for example, the Metaverse and they've got nothing to show for it, not even a slight increment in ad tech, and yet they earned enough to shrug it off.

There's a big difference between Google spending tens of billions on AI infrastructure and what Oracle is doing. Oracle is spending to get on a bandwagon. Google is transforming their business, so far seemingly correctly. If AI flops big-time, Google will be left with some stranded assets, but it won't be existential the way it would be to Oracle.

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by snowchaser on Thursday July 23, 2026 @10:44AM (#49022473)

If AI flops, they’re be left holding large pools of useful datacenter/compute capacity and “revert” to one of the most profitable businesses of all time.

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by TitaRusell on Thursday July 23, 2026 @12:19PM (#49024132)

Welcome to the world of too big to fail and the rich are beyond mortal judgement.

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by khurs on Thursday July 23, 2026 @10:55AM (#49022669)

Meta entering cloud at scale would see huge competition and lowering of profit margins.

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by bdangubic on Thursday July 23, 2026 @12:22PM (#49024185)

useful for what? my unemployed neighbours wordpress website?

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by phyrex on Thursday July 23, 2026 @12:01PM (#49023810)

Meta glasses are a direct result of this investment, and they're selling like hotcakes

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by Zigurd on Thursday July 23, 2026 @01:13PM (#49024991)

Smart glasses are about a 15 million unit per year business. Smart watches are about 150 million units per year. Meta owns about half the smart glasses business, but it hasn't provided them a platform they can control that has enough penetration to make a difference.

But wait it gets worse: since Meta hasn't got a platform comparable to a mainstream PC or mobile device OS, the Meta glasses business is vulnerable and subscale, as impressive as owning half the TAM is. Since Meta glasses aren't a companion to an existing platform (not even AndroidAR, even though they run Android) they will become a second tier choice as soon as Apple or Samsung ship a smart glasses product.

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by QuantumFunnel on Thursday July 23, 2026 @01:58PM (#49025636)

Great, let's keep expanding privacy-destroying products and hyper-surveillance in the name of corporate profits!

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Re:Alphabet's cash burn raises alarm for Big Tech as AI spen... by khurs on Thursday July 23, 2026 @10:54AM (#49022653)

>and yet they earned enough to shrug it off.

Zuck has 60% voting power, otherwise he would have been fired over metaverse and then model delays

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