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Tech Titans Accelerate AI Investment Amid Rising Capex Demands

Alphabet and Meta Platforms reported earnings showing stronger growth, while market reactions moved in opposite directions. Alphabet shares rose by 7% in after-hours trading, while Meta shares declined by 7%. The difference reflects how investors are assessing AI-related spending and revenue models.

Impressive Earnings With Divergent Outcomes

Both companies increased capital expenditure forecasts as investment in artificial intelligence expands. Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet, raised 2026 capex guidance to $180 billion–$190 billion. In parallel, Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer of Meta, increased the company’s forecast to $125 billion–$145 billion, citing higher infrastructure and component costs.

Strategies Shaped By Cloud Infrastructure

Alphabet continues to generate revenue from cloud services alongside AI development. Cloud revenue increased by 63%, supported by a backlog of approximately $460 billion. This model allows the company to link infrastructure investment with revenue growth, alongside offerings that include internally developed processing units. Peers such as Microsoft and Amazon follow a similar structure.

Defending Heavy Investments In AI

Meta’s approach differs due to the absence of a large cloud business. Investment is linked more directly to advertising performance and user engagement. During the earnings call, Zuckerberg referred to improvements in engagement and advertiser outcomes, alongside the rollout of products such as the Muse Spark model.

The Road Ahead

Meta’s share performance has trailed some peers, while its investment focus includes custom silicon developed with Broadcom and additional use of chips from AMD alongside systems based on Nvidia technology. These investments are tied to expanding AI infrastructure and supporting internal workloads. At the same time, Alphabet continues to scale its AI infrastructure, with Sundar Pichai noting increased demand for both GPU and TPU capacity during the latest earnings call. Market reactions reflect differences in how these approaches are evaluated, particularly in relation to revenue generation from cloud services and advertising models.

Eurobank Wins Two Euromoney Awards Following Cyprus Merger

Eurobank has been named Cyprus’ Best Bank for 2026 by Euromoney, while also receiving the award for Best Bank for Large Corporates at the publication’s latest Awards for Excellence.

Merger Marks A Milestone

The awards recognise the bank’s performance during 2025, a year marked by the completion of the legal merger between Hellenic Bank and Eurobank Cyprus. The transaction created Eurobank Limited, which the group says is now Cyprus’ largest banking and insurance organisation, with assets exceeding €28 billion.

Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence evaluate banks’ performance over the previous calendar year, with this edition covering January 1 to December 31, 2025.

Lending, Customers And Digital Growth

Eurobank said its business lending portfolio expanded by around 17 per cent during 2025, while its customer base grew to more than 710,000 retail clients and 11,500 business customers.

The bank also continued its digital expansion, saying more than 96 per cent of transactions are now completed through digital channels, and most financing applications are submitted via its mobile app.

Expanding International Presence

Eurobank also highlighted the opening of its first representative office in India, describing the move as a step toward strengthening business links between Cyprus and India while supporting Cyprus’ role as a gateway to the European Union for Indian businesses and investors.

According to the bank, Euromoney recognised not only the successful completion of the merger but also its lending growth, digital transformation and contribution to Cyprus’ position as an international business and investment hub.

CEO On The Awards

“The Euromoney awards confirm Eurobank’s strong momentum and the successful implementation of our group’s strategy in Cyprus,” Chief Executive Michalis Louis said.

He said the merger strengthened the bank’s ability to support households, businesses and the wider economy, while highlighting continued investment in digital services and the opening of the representative office in India as key milestones during the year.

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