Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
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The Q2 CAPEX numbers are here, the Q2 CAPEX numbers are here!
My Writing
Follow the CAPEX: Q2 2026 Scoreboard
Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft spent almost $172 billion in CAPEX. In a quarter.
Or what we like to call a good start!
Federal Reserve Issues Federal Agentic Market Committee Statement
The humans subsequently agreed with the AI agents! Do we really need to spend on the humans’ coffee and snacks?
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News
Cloud Growth Rates – Q2 2026
Hypercloud businesses looking very strong in the AI era. Good luck to all the neoclouds and aspiring neoclouds! Inference and compute are increasingly intertwined, so the breadth of cloud services matters.
Google Cloud is no longer a hobby thanks to AI. Microsoft’s still-unexplained “pause” 18 months ago still shows up in their comparatively flat growth trajectory.
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Pitchforks for Private Equity
We could probably make a list of just software companies that private equity is working their magic on.
Quick(er) Hits
Stunning the degree to which Amazon’s retail business is an afterthought these days. From the Q2 conference call:
Our final question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.
Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe pivoting to the commerce business…
A non sequitur of a book recommendation in the middle of the Microsoft earnings call: “All of us are reading this 1873 as the book to be read.” (Lords of Finance by the same author was great).
Local Seattle media woke up this week and actually asked direct (if rudimentary five Ws) questions of the political class. Were they spurred into action by that relentless dedication to “journalism” they’re always talking about? No, they were pissed off by the mayor and various dignitaries making them wait five hours for a press conference to start. But whatever it takes! The mayor once again had to be whisked away by staff in the middle of the press conference when actual questions were asked. (Inexcusable lack of clarity after Seattle Center shooting from mayor, SPD leadership)