... This story also covered by NY Times, Reuters, Axios
-- Meta ... "Meta Shares Fall on Accelerating AI Spending Despite Record Revenue", Meghan Bobrowsky, WSJ, 10/29/25
... This story also covered by Reuters, CNBC
-- Amazon ... "Amazon Reports 13% Jump in Revenue", Julie Chang, WSJ, 10/31/25
... This story also covered by NY Times, Reuters, CNBC
-- Microsoft ..."Microsoft Stock Slips Despite Strong Cloud-Business Growth", Sebastian Herrera, WSJ, 10/29/29
... This story also covered by NY Times, Reuters, CNBC
-- Apple ..."Apple Expects Big December Quarter on iPhone Upgrades", Rolfe Winkler, WSJ, 10/30/24
... ... This story also covered by NY Times, Reuters, CNBC
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Market reaction: investors viewed the results as a sign that Google’s heavy AI investments are translating into real profits.
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AI spending will reach up to $93 billion this year, focused on data center expansion.
a2) Google’s cloud division surged 34% to $15.2 billion, buoyed by AI demand.
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Cloud growth reflects demand from companies racing to build and train AI models.
a3) Search and YouTube both posted double-digit growth—15% each—despite rising competition from AI-first startups like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
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The Gemini chatbot now has 650 million monthly users, with queries tripling in the past quarter.
a4) Google also scored a legal reprieve in its antitrust case, avoiding forced divestitures while keeping its lucrative search deal with Apple.
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The ruling allows Google to continue paying Apple $20 billion annually to remain Safari’s default search engine.
... Meta ... Meta ... Meta ...
Meta Shares Fall on Accelerating AI Spending Despite Record Revenue
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Market reaction: investors are concerned about ballooning infrastructure costs and uncertain payoffs from AI.
b2) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the spending is aimed at achieving “superintelligence” and ensuring Meta leads in next-generation AI systems.
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He acknowledged that the timeline for returns is unclear but insisted the spending positions Meta for long-term dominance.
b3) Meta’s capital expenditures may reach nearly $100 billion next year, up sharply from this year’s $72 billion.
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Much of the money is for new U.S. data centers and high-end computing infrastructure.
b4) Analysts questioned Meta’s transparency about ROI and cost discipline.
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CFO Susan Li said AI-related compensation and infrastructure would be the main drivers of expense growth in 2026.
... Amnazon ... Amnazon ... Amnazon ...
Amazon Shares Surge on 13% Revenue Jump, Strong Cloud Sales
c1) Amazon reported third-quarter revenue of $180 billion, up 13%, and net income of $21.2 billion, up 39%. Shares jumped more than 10% after hours, lifted by strong cloud and AI-driven growth.
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Market reaction: investors rewarded Amazon for proving it’s still competitive in the AI race after lagging behind rivals.
c2) Amazon Web Services revenue rose 20%, the fastest growth since 2022, as AI clients snapped up capacity.
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CEO Andy Jassy said demand is constrained mainly by power and chip supply, not lack of customers.
c3) The company will spend about $125 billion on capital expenditures this year, mostly on AI data centers and automation.
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Project Rainier, a major new AI data center, is now fully operational.
c4) Amazon also cut 14,000 white-collar jobs to improve efficiency and offset legal and restructuring costs.
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Jassy said the goal is to remain lean while doubling data center capacity again by 2027.
... Microsoft ... Microsoft ... Microsoft ...
Microsoft to Double Data Center Footprint in Two Years
d1) Microsoft posted revenue of $77.7 billion, up strongly on surging cloud demand, but shares slipped 4% after hours due to massive AI infrastructure spending.
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Market reaction: investors are wary of near-term costs despite long-term AI gains.
d2) Azure cloud revenue grew about 40%, while operating income rose 24% to $38 billion. Net income reached $27.7 billion.
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The company will double its data center footprint in two years to meet demand for AI hosting and model training.
d3) Microsoft’s $3.1 billion OpenAI-related charge and its 27% ownership stake in the new OpenAI public-benefit corporation highlight its deep entanglement with the startup.
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Some investors fear Microsoft’s exposure to OpenAI is too concentrated.
d4) Capital expenditures hit $34.9 billion for the quarter as Microsoft raced to expand capacity, including massive GPU contracts and new facilities in Wisconsin and abroad.
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Deferred cloud revenue commitments rose 51% to $392 billion, showing long-term customer demand remains robust.
... Apple ... Apple ... Apple ...
Apple Expects Big December Quarter on iPhone Upgrades
e1) Apple reported record quarterly revenue of $102.5 billion, up 8% from a year earlier, and forecast a 10–12% revenue jump in the December quarter, far exceeding expectations. Shares rose 3% after hours.
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Market reaction: optimism over iPhone 17 upgrades and a strong holiday outlook drove the stock higher.
e2) iPhone sales reached $49 billion despite supply constraints that limited availability of popular Pro and Pro Max models.
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Apple expects double-digit iPhone sales growth next quarter as constraints ease.
e3) I investments are increasing, adding $1.5 billion to upcoming expenses—still far below rivals’ spending levels.
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Apple frames its AI spending as targeted and efficient rather than a spending race.
e4) Services revenue surpassed $100 billion for the fiscal year, boosted by Google’s $20 billion annual payment to remain Safari’s default search engine.
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A recent court ruling preserved this arrangement, protecting roughly one-fifth of Apple’s operating profit.
Blog Editor's Caveat --
- The report (noted above) from Inside Climate News missed the key point of the governors' deliberately obscure proposal that is laden with jargon. Some media, like Inside Climate News, and some political leaders may really believe that Big Tech can be compelled to bring its own power. In reality Big Tech is one who demands that local utilities guarantee their capacity to satisfy Big Tech's immense levels of required power.
- What the governors of the founding states of the PJM -- Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland -- really want is to return to being old fashioned vertically integrated utilities like Dominion Virginia that own power generators and transmission lines, but they have no direct legal path on which to return.
- So the subtext of their obscure proposal, in this case the real message, is a strategy for achieving this desired result by indirect measures.
Large electricity users can qualify for expedited interconnection (a faster approval to connect to the PJM grid) if they make a financial commitment to back new or existing power generation. This can include signing long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), expanding current facilities, or keeping older plants online if an independent audit shows they’re still economical.
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“UCAP” (Unforced Capacity) represents the amount of dependable electricity a generator can provide under PJM’s reliability rules; the customer must match its energy use with equal UCAP from a generator.
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If the generator cannot deliver when the system year begins, the customer must enroll in PJM’s “Step 9a emergency procedures,” meaning they’ll reduce load or provide backup capacity during shortages.
Large customers and their partnered generation developers can get a fast-track through PJM’s review process when both projects are located in the same Locational Deliverability Area (LDA)—a regional sub-zone within PJM used for balancing supply and demand.
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PJM’s interconnection studies—which assess how new facilities will affect grid reliability—must be finished in 90 days for nearby projects and 180 days for others in the same LDA.
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States will issue directives for expedited review, and PJM must give customers access to all study data to ensure transparency.
The governors propose forming a state consortium—a formal partnership among participating states—to coordinate and streamline environmental siting and construction permits for large customer energy projects.
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This mechanism would reduce overlapping state and PJM reviews, shortening the approval timeline for projects with both industrial-scale load and private generation.
To reduce financial risk, large customers can voluntarily pay upfront for grid network upgrades (infrastructure improvements needed to connect their projects). These payments act as cost allocation deposits—credits that can be reimbursed later if those upgrades serve broader system needs.
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PJM and Transmission Owners (TOs) must create a legal and financial framework under Federal Power Act (FPA) Section 205, which governs rate filings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
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TOs remain responsible for building and owning these upgrades, even if customers prepay for them.
To prevent reliability issues as large customers adopt the BYOG model, PJM proposes expanding a demand response (DR) product—programs that pay customers to reduce power use during stress periods. The DR availability would increase from 24–100 hours annually to 24–240 hours, with limits on consecutive hours.
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This gives large users more flexibility to manage price or supply volatility while maintaining grid balance.
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The expansion serves as a transitional safeguard while PJM integrates more private generation and customer-led projects.
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