Greg
Public Equities Commentary
Microsoft and Amazon probably have an asymmetric earnings setup versus semiconductors because they may answer questions about returns on capital and future capex flexibility. They may also get positive feedback on open-weight model adoption, which hedges reliance on closed labs, while reiterating that AI data-center supply is tight. This assumes no blowout capex raises; the market is already trading the setup but often revisits the same headlines. x.comÂ
Microsoft's 50% Azure growth and prospect of positive cash flow in 2027 make the stock look bulletproof. Headcount cuts, lower Anthropic spend, a better Copilot routed to cheaper tokens, and coming proprietary chips and model usage add to the case. It should get Apple's multiple plus recognition for cybersecurity. x.com x.comÂ
Deployment limits will slow AI hardware spending and expose cyclical suppliers such as SK hynix. Amazon has hardware waiting for power, and Broadcom's CEO said some clients delayed shipments because they could not deploy. Cheap forward multiples can mark a cyclical peak as analysts extrapolate growth. The slowdown could have begun or be a year away; timing is uncertain, so reducing cyclical risk in favor of healthier, genuinely cheap names looks better. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Microsoft's delivery delays are affecting earnings, making other sources of returns look safer now. x.comÂ
Fast peer-cloud growth makes a bullish Amazon earnings view hard to resist. Azure grew 48% and Google Cloud 103%; the forecast is for 42%+ AWS growth. AWS is expected to grow over 40% annually over the next two years, so selling Amazon here risks missing that growth. x.com x.comÂ
Microsoft's AI spending is producing faster growth with better economics: Azure accelerated to 48% on a $100B+ base while capex was $39.4B, below expectations. Management then guided Azure to 49-50% and said demand still exceeds supply, ending the debate over whether AI investment is paying off. Overweight, $625 target. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Amazon's negative free cash flow and far-off AWS guidance add to its investment risk. Free cash flow is -$42 billion. True_yes_man describes Jassy extrapolating fourth-quarter AWS revenue at 40% growth for five years. That guide cannot be taken seriously; it resembles the Tesla and Nvidia playbook of projecting years ahead to support the market into the midterms, then recalibrating later. x.com x.comÂ
Anthropic's compute commitments point to future revenue for Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Broadcom and Nvidia. Its S-1 reports 14-fold revenue growth, positive second-quarter 2026 EBIT and more than $600 billion committed to compute through 2045. The AI trade is alive and well, more than expected, provided demand keeps pace with those commitments. x.comÂ
Rapid revenue growth makes the capex bear case harder to justify for Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon. Their latest cited growth rates are 18%, 23%, 28% and 16% in Q2, respectively; their scale does not seem to be slowing them as expected. x.comÂ
Amazon's unusual long-term AWS guidance looks desperate and leaves its stock looking dead. @P_Remarks says Amazon normally avoids long-term guidance and speculates that its projection of over 40% AWS revenue growth in both 2027 and 2028 was a Hail Mary to offset a quarter weak relative to expectations. x.comÂ
Accelerating Azure and AWS growth shows hyperscaler buildout and monetization have not slowed. Microsoft reported 48% Azure growth and guided to 49-50%; Amazon expects AWS growth above 40% in 2027 and 2028, positive for the infrastructure trade. Amazon's growth is more capital intensive, with deeply negative free cash flow projected, though AWS margins remain healthy. x.com x.com x.comÂ
