Alphabet's third-quarter filings put new numbers on how much the company is building and how much it has already agreed to build. The earnings release, dated Oct. 28 and furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K, reports $51,355 million of purchases of property and equipment for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026. A year earlier the figure was $23,953 million. The Form 10-Q, signed the same day, adds detail the release does not cover. It lists $130.5 billion of future payments on leases that have been signed but have not yet started, which the company says are primarily data centers and energy infrastructure. It also gives the first formal account of Crux AI, a compute-as-a-service joint venture with Blackstone.

For people who track the buildout, the cash spent this quarter is only part of the story. The rest is the lease and backstop commitments that will shape Alphabet's footprint for years after the quarter closes.

The Spending

The earnings release reports purchases of property and equipment of $51,355 million in the third quarter and $159,804 million over the trailing twelve months. In the 10-Q, nine-month capex is $132.0 billion, compared with $63.6 billion in the same period of 2025. The 10-Q also repeats the company's expectation that 2026 investment in technical infrastructure will rise significantly over 2025.

The release also reports third-quarter free cash flow of negative $9,065 million, defined as operating cash flow less capital expenditures. Total revenue was $127.6 billion, up 25%, according to the release. In the same release, CEO Sundar Pichai pointed to strong demand for TPU systems and AI infrastructure, meaning the custom Tensor Processing Unit chips Google designs for machine-learning workloads.

Google Cloud is where that demand appears in revenue. The release reports Cloud revenue up 103% to $30.7 billion in the quarter.

A $567.7 Billion Backlog

The 10-Q reports a revenue backlog of $567.7 billion as of Sept. 30, 2026. Of that, $560.8 billion relates to Google Cloud. The filing says it expects to recognize just over 55% of the backlog as revenue over the next 24 months.

The 10-Q states that $16.8 billion of the backlog is associated with a multi-year commercial agreement with Crux AI, which it describes as an unconsolidated equity method joint venture and a related party. That makes part of Cloud's contracted future revenue dependent on a related party, which the filing discloses directly.

$130.5 Billion of Leases Not Yet Commenced

The lease disclosure says the most about future physical capacity. According to the 10-Q, Alphabet has entered into leases that have not yet commenced with future payments of $130.5 billion that are not yet recorded. The filing describes them as primarily related to data centers and energy infrastructure. They will commence between 2026 and 2031, with non-cancelable lease terms of between one and 26 years.

These commitments are separate from the capex line, which in the filings covers purchases of property and equipment. Because the leases have not commenced, the filing says the payments are not yet recorded. The portions of the 10-Q reviewed for this article do not break the $130.5 billion down by site, megawatts or counterparty. For a community where a leased campus or energy project is proposed, the filing gives the scale of the commitments but does not say where they are.

What the Filing Says About Crux AI

The 10-Q describes a joint venture with Blackstone, entered into in May 2026, to provide data center capacity, operations, networking, hardware and software as a single compute-as-a-service offering. It was formally announced as Crux AI during the third quarter. The filing sets out each side's commitment:

  • Blackstone is committed to provide future capital contributions of up to $5.0 billion.
  • Alphabet is committed to provide future data center and energy infrastructure backstops, in support of agreements the venture may enter into, of up to $10.0 billion, subject to certain conditions.
  • Alphabet holds a minority interest, which it accounts for under the equity method. The filing says the carrying value of the investment was not material as of Sept. 30, 2026.

Taken together with the backlog disclosure, the arrangement is a two-way relationship. Alphabet is a minority owner of Crux AI, has committed to backstops of up to $10.0 billion, and includes $16.8 billion tied to its multi-year commercial agreement with Crux AI in its revenue backlog. The passages of the 10-Q reviewed do not say whether any of the backstops have been drawn. These are commitment ceilings, not amounts spent.

The reported debt financing

Earlier reporting described a much larger financing behind the venture. On Sept. 16, AI Weekly, summarizing Bloomberg, reported that a 10-bank consortium was lining up a $22 billion loan for Crux AI to buy Google TPUs. According to that report, the loan is backed by the value of the chips and Crux AI's customer contracts, and the consortium includes Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Barclays, BNP Paribas and Bank of Nova Scotia. The same report described a separate $1 billion revolving credit facility, said Blackstone committed an initial $5 billion in equity when the venture was announced in May, and said that equity was meant to help bring 500 megawatts of data center capacity online in 2027.

None of those terms appear in the Alphabet filings reviewed. The $5.0 billion Blackstone commitment is consistent with the 10-Q. The $22 billion loan, the lender list, the revolver and the 500 MW target come from press reporting attributed to Bloomberg, and Alphabet's filings neither confirm nor dispute them.

Industry Context

Alphabet reported the same week as other hyperscalers. In its weekly roundup dated Oct. 30 and published Oct. 31, the Data Centre News newsletter listed Alphabet's $51.4 billion of third-quarter capex next to Microsoft quarterly capital spending of approximately $45.2 billion and 48% Azure growth. It also noted record annualised bookings of $533 million at Equinix. DataCenterFeed has not checked the Microsoft and Equinix figures against those companies' filings. They are the newsletter's figures.

What Happens Next

None of the sources names a scheduled, on-the-record next step for Crux AI or for any specific Alphabet facility, such as a hearing, vote, regulatory deadline or construction milestone. The 10-Q does state that the $130.5 billion of not-yet-commenced leases will commence between 2026 and 2031. The 500 MW target for 2027 is attributed to Bloomberg's reporting, as relayed by AI Weekly, not to Alphabet's filings, and the filings reviewed do not confirm it.

Sources