The busiest week of the US earnings season kicks off on Wednesday when Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta all report quarterly results after the closing bell. Apple follows on Thursday. Together, the five companies account for roughly a quarter of the S&P 500's market capitalisation, and their numbers will set the tone for technology stocks heading into the summer.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives framed the week as a test of the broader AI investment thesis. The firm expects strong results across the board and believes the market is still underestimating the commercial potential of what it calls the fourth industrial revolution.
Apple faces its most consequential earnings call in years
Apple reports fiscal second-quarter results on Thursday against a backdrop of leadership upheaval. Tim Cook announced last week that he will step down as chief executive in September, moving to the role of executive chairman. John Ternus, currently senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take over as CEO.
Investors will be focused less on the March quarter numbers and more on what Cook says about the transition and the AI strategy that Ternus will inherit. Apple has lagged its peers on artificial intelligence, and Wedbush expects the company to lay out its roadmap at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The brokerage describes 2026 as a pivotal year for the company.
Amazon's cloud backlog doubled in a year
Amazon reports first-quarter results on Wednesday. Wedbush expects a strong beat, arguing that Wall Street continues to underestimate the pace of growth at Amazon Web Services. The cloud division is operating in what the firm describes as a supply-constrained environment for AI workloads.
The numbers backing the thesis are substantial. AWS now carries a backlog of $244bn, double the figure from a year ago. Amazon's custom Trainium3 and Trainium4 chips are sold out. The company has committed to $200bn in capital expenditure, which Wedbush says has already been underwritten by signed customer commitments. A high-margin advertising business growing at more than 20% a year provides additional support.
Alphabet's AI flywheel spans search, cloud and custom silicon
Alphabet also reports on Wednesday. Wedbush expects another beat, driven by three engines: Google Cloud, AI-powered search and YouTube. The cloud business is now running at more than $70bn in annualised revenue.
The firm's thesis rests on Alphabet's vertical integration. The company builds its own TPU chips, runs its own hyperscale cloud infrastructure and deploys AI across its consumer advertising properties through the Gemini model family. That combination, according to Wedbush, gives Alphabet a self-reinforcing growth loop that the market has not fully priced in.
Microsoft remains the AI frontrunner heading into the back half of its fiscal year
Microsoft also reports fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday. Wedbush describes the company as the leader in the AI revolution and expects solid numbers, with the Azure cloud platform continuing to gain share.
The firm sees fiscal 2026 as an inflection point for AI-driven growth at Microsoft, as more chief information officers sign up for enterprise deployments. Wedbush considers Microsoft one of its top large-cap picks, arguing that the Azure growth story remains underappreciated by the broader market.
Meta is converting AI spending directly into advertising revenue
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Meta rounds out the Wednesday reports. Wedbush calls it one of the cleanest AI monetisation stories in big tech, where capital expenditure on AI infrastructure converts directly into measurable advertising revenue gains.
The firm's channel checks through the March quarter point to sustained strength in digital advertising across e-commerce, consumer goods and financial services. Reels advertising is now running at roughly $50bn in annualised revenue, and Threads monetisation is accelerating. For Meta, the AI spending story is not a speculative wager on future revenue. It is already showing up in the profit and loss account, quarter by quarter.
