Big Tech buybacks fall 83% as AI spending eats the cash, Reuters reports

Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle handed 9.3% of the cash their businesses made back to shareholders. That covers the first nine months of 2026. That is the smallest share in at least 15 years, down from 27.4% a year earlier.

The figures come from a Reuters analysis of LSEG data and company reports by Patturaja Murugaboopathy. The five companies’ operating cash flow rose 29% to a record $542.9bn. Their capital spending doubled to $556.9bn. It topped the cash they made for the first time in data going back to 2011.

That left a combined free cash flow deficit of $14bn, against a surplus of $143.5bn a year earlier. Big Tech buybacks took the hit. They fell 83% to $13.6bn, from $81.8bn. Dividends rose to $37bn from $33.9bn.

With free cash flow negative, the $50.6bn paid out came from cash reserves, borrowing or share sales, Reuters found. Amazon raised $48.1bn of long-term debt in the third quarter. Alphabet raised about $12.4bn from share sales and $29bn from debt.

Buybacks spread profits across fewer shares, which lifts earnings per share even when profits do not grow. Alphabet cut its share count by 9.5% between the end of 2020 and 2025, ING said. That alone added about 2% a year to its earnings per share.

“For the last 15 years, companies increasingly returned excess capital to shareholders through buybacks and dividends,” said Ehren Stanhope, co-head of investment management at Franklin Templeton.

“The current regime may increasingly be characterized by greater equity and debt issuance, a request of capital from investors,” he said.

The companies say the spending will pay off. Amazon’s Andy Jassy told analysts on Thursday that he sees a clear line of sight to attractive returns, and that Amazon will spend more in 2027. Oracle has set a free cash flow target of $30bn by 2029. Meanwhile the five hold more than $3tn in commitments for the AI build-out, and Amazon can now borrow up to $80bn against the AI hardware it buys.