GOOGLE SPENT $51 BILLION IN THREE MONTHS AND LOST $500 BILLION IN ONE DAY

Alphabet dropped its Q3 numbers Wednesday night, and by Thursday's close the market had quietly removed about $500 billion from the company. The stock fell roughly 13%, the worst single day since Google went public in 2004. The old record was an 11.63% faceplant in March 2020, back when the excuse was a global pandemic. The top line was not the problem. Revenue hit $127.6 billion, up 25%, and Google Cloud more than doubled to $30.7 billion. Then investors kept reading. Alphabet spent $51.4 billion on property and equipment in three months, up from $24 billion a year earlier, which is roughly what the company spent in all of 2024. Free cash flow came in at negative $9.07 billion, the second negative quarter in a row. Long-term debt climbed from $46.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $125.1 billion. CFO Anat Ashkenazi then got on the call and told analysts capex will increase significantly in 2027, with details to come on the Q4 call. Full-year 2026 guidance stayed at $195 billion to $205 billion. Meanwhile search ad revenue grew 12%, slowing from 17% in Q2, which is the business paying for all of it. Earnings per share landed at $2.12 against the $3.02 analysts wanted, dinged by an $8.7 billion loss on equity securities, mostly the SpaceX stake.

Why you should give a shit: Google is borrowing billions to build the AI that is currently making its ad business grow slower, and Thursday was Wall Street politely asking when the second half of that plan starts.