Google just had its first negative cash flow quarter due to massive AI spending

Google has reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2026 ( PDF ), and as usual, the search giant raked in an unfathomable amount of money. 8 billion, beating analyst expectations by a comfortable margin. Despite that, the company's stock has taken a hit.

Along with all that revenue, Google has announced a further increase in its AI-fueled capital expenditures (or capex). The company is actually spending so much on AI infrastructure that it has negative cash flow for the first time. 3 billion.

8 percent increase from the first quarter. This shows there is massive demand for Google's AI services. 1 billion from YouTube ads.

The company managed to goose that last one by more than 12 percent since last quarter as it made YouTube ads even longer . A significant chunk of Google's revenue comes from investments. 1 billion.

That's not the most the company has ever seen, but it's a healthy 40 percent increase from Q2 2025. The problem is that Google's spending has also gone up—a lot.