Alphabet Earnings Reaffirm Bullish Thesis Despite Massive Capex Scale

Analysts on May 8 reaffirmed their bullish thesis on Alphabet, highlighting Q1's 22% revenue growth to $109.9 billion, 63% Google Cloud surge to $20 billion with $460 billion backlog, and AI momentum via Gemini, despite 2026 capex guidance of $180-190 billion risking near-term FCF. The April 29 earnings beat—EPS $5.11 versus $2.63 estimates—sparked a 34% April stock rally to $4.65 trillion market cap, extended by a May 5 report of Anthropic's $200 billion Google Cloud commitment and profitability outpacing Meta. Post-earnings coverage underscores Alphabet outgrowing rivals in cloud AI, with operating margins expanding to 32.9%.