Big Tech buybacks fall 83% as AI spending eats the cash
Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle returned only 9.3% of the cash their businesses generated to shareholders in the first nine months of 2026, according to a Reuters analysis of LSEG data and company reports. That is down from 27.4% a year earlier and the smallest share in at least 15 years, with rising AI spending cited as the driver.
