Beyond the Hype: How Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet Are Monetising AI
January 22, 2026
Big Tech is pouring hundreds of billions into AI capital expenditure.
But the question on every investor’s mind is: where’s the money?
The good news?
Today’s AI investments are backed by actual revenue.
Here’s how three tech giants are turning AI hype into hard cash.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) may have the clearest monetisation story of the trio.
The social media giant’s AI-powered ad tools now generate a US$60 billion annual run-rate.
That’s not a projection — that’s real money flowing through AI systems today.
Here’s the thing: Meta has rebuilt its entire advertising stack from the ground up with AI as the foundation.
The results speak for themselves.
For the third quarter of 2025 (3Q’25), Family of Apps ad revenue surpassed US$50 billion, up 26% year-over-year.
The secret sauce?
Ad impressions grew 14% while average price per ad climbed 10%.
Meta is showing more ads AND charging more for each one.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn’t slowing down either.
The company spent between US$70 and 72 billion in 2025, with plans for “notably larger” spending in 2026.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is playing a different game entirely — positioning Azure as the infrastructure layer of choice for enterprise AI.
The strategy is working.
For the first quarter of fiscal year ending 30 June 2026 (1Q’FY26), Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 40%, driven by demand for AI services.
Microsoft currently serves 80,000 Azure AI customers, including 80% of the Fortune 500.
But here’s the kicker: Microsoft isn’t betting everything on OpenAI anymore.
Following a new deal in October 2025, the two companies have untethered their futures.
Microsoft is now free to partner with OpenAI rivals like Anthropic — and it’s already investing up to US$15 billion in the Claude maker alongside NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA).
As CEO Satya Nadella sees it, AI models will be commoditised.
Microsoft’s edge lies in enterprise relationships and coding tools like GitHub Copilot, which now boasts 26 million users.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is known for its search engine but its advantage comes from its infrastructure.
The search giant is processing 1.3 quadrillion tokens monthly — a 20-fold increase year-over-year.
This isn’t just about having the best AI model; it’s about having the capacity when everyone else is scrambling for computing power.
The proof is in the numbers.
Alphabet reported double-digit growth across four of its largest revenue segments for 3Q’25.
Google Cloud revenue rose 33% year-over-year, with operating margins expanding to almost 24%.
More telling: nearly 150 Cloud customers are each processing approximately one trillion tokens.
These aren’t experiments — they’re production workloads.
Alphabet’s secret weapon?
The company’s seventh-generation TPU chips.
Anthropic recently signed a deal to access up to one million TPUs — a testament to Google’s infrastructure advantage.
Here’s what separates today’s AI spending from the metaverse hype cycle: revenue receipts.
Meta has US$60 billion in AI-powered ad revenue.
Microsoft’s Azure AI business is growing 40%.
Alphabet’s Cloud division is posting 33% growth with expanding margins.
The sceptics aren’t wrong to question hundreds of billions in collective capex.
But unlike previous tech bubbles, the money trail is visible.
As always, the future remains uncertain.
But for now, the Big Tech AI bet is paying off — in actual dollars, not just promises.
After all, where the business goes, eventually the stock will follow.
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Disclosure: Chin Hui Leong owns shares of Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft.
The post Beyond the Hype: How Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet Are Monetising AI appeared first on The Smart Investor.
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