Last week's selloff in Alphabet, Meta and Amazon was mostly told as a free cash flow story. I wanted to see the other side of the same cash flow statement: what happened to buybacks. So I read the latest 10-Q from each of the five big AI spenders and pulled the repurchase lines.

The short version: Alphabet and Meta, which bought back $62.2B and $30.1B of their own stock in 2024, repurchased nothing at all in the first nine months of 2026.

The table

Company Period Buybacks this year Same period a year earlier Authorization left Capex this year Capex a year earlier

Alphabet Jan to Sep 2026 $0 $39.8B $69.5B of $70.0B $132.0B $63.6B

Meta Jan to Sep 2026 $0 $26.2B $25.0B $83.1B $48.3B

Microsoft Jul to Sep 2026 $2.9B $4.0B $37.7B of $60.0B $39.4B $19.4B

Amazon Jan to Sep 2026 $0 $0 $6.1B of $10.0B $175.7B $92.3B

Oracle Jun to Aug 2026 $0 $93M $6.3B n/a n/a

Capex here is the cash flow statement line ("purchases of property and equipment", "additions to property and equipment" at Microsoft).…