Alphabet and Intel earnings could reset the AI trade

Earnings Impact 4
โดย TheStreet·Read original
Summary · why it matters

Alphabet and Intel are set to report second-quarter earnings that could determine whether the recent slide in AI stocks is a buying opportunity or the start of a broader valuation reset. Alphabet, one of the biggest infrastructure buyers in the industry, reports on Wednesday, July 22, and must show that its massive capital spending—$35.7 billion in the first quarter and a planned $180 billion to $190 billion for 2026—is generating sufficient returns through cloud and advertising growth. Intel, which reports on Thursday, July 23, after its shares surged more than 160% in 2026, needs to prove that its rally reflects genuine business improvement, with investors focused on data center and AI growth, foundry margins, and third-quarter guidance. The market's expectations are exceptionally high, with S&P 500 earnings projected to rise 26% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index still up over 60% in 2026 despite a recent pullback, meaning even strong results may not satisfy investors if guidance fails to exceed elevated forecasts.

Impact on stocks 2

Artificial Intelligence▲ · 1 stocks
Alphabet Inc Class C
GOOG
± MixedCapitalrelevance

Alphabet must show its massive AI capex is generating returns; high expectations mean even strong results may disappoint if guidance fails.

Semiconductors▲ · 1 stocks
Intel Corporation
INTC
± MixedCapitalrelevance

Intel needs to prove its rally reflects genuine business improvement, with focus on data center/AI growth, foundry margins, and guidance.

Theme Impact 7

Related news

IREN Fair Value Trimmed to US$79.03 as AI Cloud Wins Meet Build Out Risks

IREN's fair value estimate has been trimmed from US$80.93 to US$79.03, a modest adjustment reflecting a mix of growing AI cloud contracts and ongoing questions around execution and supply build out through 2027. The revision lifts revenue growth assumptions to 168.01% from 125.79% and net profit margin expectations to 11.73% from 5.79%, while the future P/E assumption drops to 31.26x from 90.29x and the discount rate rises to 9.41% from 8.83%. On the bullish side, JPMorgan shifted IREN from Underweight to Overweight with a US$65 price target, citing a partnership with Nvidia, new customer signings and higher industry pricing, while H.C. Wainwright raised its target to US$90 after IREN announced US$2.8b of new multi year AI cloud contracts and lifted its 2026 AI cloud annual recurring revenue target to more than US$4b. Northland initiated IREN at Outperform with a US$99 price target, and Freedom Capital upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy. Freedom Capital nonetheless flagged execution on supply additions over the next two years as a central risk, noting the story depends heavily on adding capacity on schedule.
IREN ▲JPM ▲
Artificial Intelligence ▲Cloud & Digital Infrastructure
Simply Wall St·8hRead more →
impact 4

Nvidia-Backed Nscale Files for US IPO After $1.02 Billion Loss

Nscale, the London-based AI data center developer backed by Nvidia and Microsoft, filed publicly for an initial public offering in New York, seeking to raise as much as $3 billion. The company reported a net loss of $1.02 billion on revenue of $140.6 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $368.9 million on revenue of $10.4 million a year earlier, according to its Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Spun off from a cryptocurrency mining operation in early 2024, Nscale was valued at about $14.6 billion in a March Series C round led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with Nvidia and Nokia Oyj also participating. The company has agreed to add more than 30,000 Nvidia chips to an existing rental agreement with Microsoft at its Narvik, Norway gigafactory, and Anthropic has agreed to spend $45 billion to rent AI cloud computing power from its flagship West Virginia data center development. The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, with shares expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NSCL.
NVDA ▲MSFT ▲GS ▲JPM ▲MS ▲0MJX.LSE
Artificial Intelligence ▲Cloud & Digital Infrastructure
Bloomberg·9hRead more →
▲2

Tigress Analyst Raises Alphabet Price Target to Street-High $485

Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth reiterated a Strong Buy rating on Alphabet and raised his price target to a Street-high $485 from $415, implying roughly 39.6% upside. The bullish thesis centers on Alphabet turning its massive AI investments into growth across Search, Cloud and Gemini, with Feinseth arguing AI Overviews and AI Mode can make Google more useful for complex, high-intent queries. Recent results support that argument: Alphabet's second-quarter revenue rose 24% from a year earlier to $119.8 billion, Search and Other revenue increased 17%, YouTube advertising grew 13%, and operating income climbed 30% to $40.77 billion. Google Cloud revenue surged 82% to $24.8 billion, operating income more than tripled to $8.8 billion, margins reached 35.6%, and its $514 billion backlog gives visibility into future enterprise demand. Gemini has reached 950 million monthly active users, more than 9 million monthly developers and roughly 22 billion API tokens processed per minute, and Feinseth sees monetization opportunities across subscriptions, APIs, enterprise software, agents and productivity products, though the risk remains that Alphabet must prove its enormous AI spending generates sufficient returns.
GEMIGOOG
Cloud & Digital Infrastructure ▲Artificial Intelligence ▲
GuruFocus·10hRead more →
© 2026 MarketDXNews