The Era of Big Tech Stock Buybacks Has Ended
The combined stock buybacks of Alphabet ($GOOGL), Amazon ($AMZN), Microsoft ($MSFT), Meta ($META), and Oracle ($ORCL) fell to $4.4 billion in the third quarter of 2026—the lowest level since the third quarter of 2017.
Since peaking at approximately $45.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, stock buybacks have declined by 90%.
This also marks the third consecutive quarter in which total buybacks have remained below $5 billion.
This comes as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle made no share repurchases at all during 2026.
In contrast, these tech giants’ combined buybacks in the first quarter of 2026 totaled $33 billion.
AI spending is coming at the expense of stock buybacks by these tech giants.
🚨 NVIDIA CAN ONLY FULFILL ~1% OF CHINA'S AI CHIP ORDERS OVER THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS.
Chinese customers of $NVDA are expected to receive just 1% of the advanced chips they've ordered over the next four months, according to Bloomberg.
Alibaba $BABA , Tencent, ByteDance and other Chinese AI and cloud companies have reportedly ordered around 6 million RTX Pro 5500 chips, worth approximately $70 billion.
But NVIDIA is expected to deliver only tens of thousands during that period as production struggles to keep up with surging demand.
The takeaway: AI demand isn't slowing down. The bigger question is whether NVIDIA can scale supply fast enough to capture it.
Is this a sign of just how strong AI demand remains or could supply constraints become NVIDIA's next major bottleneck? 👀
Here's everything you need to know:
1. Chip stocks rebounded strongly after three days of sharp declines. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose about 2.6%, while the S&P 500 ended a three-day losing streak.
2. NVDA rose about 2.3% to $206.69. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7% but remained in correction territory, about 10% below its recent high.
3. AMD rose about 7% in after-hours trading on better-than-expected third-quarter earnings of $2.09 per share, exceeding the expected $1.95. ANET rose 12%, the SMCI rose more than 9% in after-hours trading, while SWKS fell about 16% due to weak guidance.
4. AAPL fell about 1.9% to $331.90 after disappointing profit forecasts and lower-than-expected tablet sales, dragging down the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
5. $FN rose about 15% after revenue surged 51% to $1.47 billion. $NBIX rose about 15%, and $FISV rose 12% due to better-than-expected results.
6. $IT fell about 13% despite exceeding expectations, $DT fell more than 10% due to a weak outlook, and $SHOP fell more than 5% due to lower-than-expected total commodity trading volume.
7. Brent crude oil closed down 1.1% at $103.60, while WTI crude oil declined 0.4% to $96.09 after Monday's 8% plunge. The 10-year Treasury yield rose about 6 basis points to 4.95%, the largest increase since September 28.
8. Gold slipped to about $3,935, silver fell to about $49.60, while Bitcoin remained around $77,000. $COIN rebounded about 8% after falling 15% over three days.
9. Trump indicated that peace talks with Iran could resume soon.
10. The S&P 500 rose 0.36%, the Dow Jones fell 0.38%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.83%.
Are you ready for the stock market to move forward?
I heard that Tesla ($TSLA) has added a third production line at its Texas Gigafactory
Trump seemed to be saying: Brother, it's all up to you today. (It's best to bring a kiss) 😁