Big Tech Sets $715B-$740B 2026 Spending Range as Healthcare AI Expands

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have disclosed or indicated combined 2026 capital-spending plans of about $715 billion to $740 billion, putting healthcare among the large industries targeted for expanded artificial intelligence use.

The total includes infrastructure and other capital investments, not AI spending alone. Alphabet forecast 2026 capital expenditures of $195 billion to $205 billion, while Amazon expects approximately $200 billion.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said, “We’re not investing approximately $200 billion in capex in 2026 on a hunch.” Much of Amazon Web Services spending is expected to be monetized in 2027 and 2028.

Microsoft projects about $190 billion in capital spending during calendar 2026, with component-price increases accounting for roughly $25 billion. Meta forecast capital expenditures of $130 billion to $145 billion, including principal payments on finance leases.

Healthcare represents a large potential market for AI-driven efficiency because of its spending scale and extensive administrative activity. National healthcare spending increased 7.2% in 2024, reaching $5.3 trillion, or 18% of U.S. GDP and $15,474 for each resident.

Hospital spending reached $1.6347 trillion, while spending on physician and clinical services totaled $1.1097 trillion.

Technology companies and healthcare organizations are expanding partnerships around specialized AI systems. Microsoft and Mayo Clinic announced a collaboration June 2, 2026, to develop a healthcare-specific frontier AI model using Mayo’s de-identified clinical data and longitudinal insights.

The model is initially intended for deployment within Mayo’s clinical environment. “Mayo Clinic is committed to putting patients first, and we have long believed AI can help transform healthcare,” said Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO.

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, said, “Frontier medical intelligence is around the corner.”

CVS Health and Google Cloud announced a strategic partnership March 5, 2026. The partnership will incorporate Gemini models and Google Cloud's healthcare-data and analytics tools into CVS Health's Health100 platform.

The companies’ healthcare initiatives come as Medicare updates the way certain physician services are valued. For 2026, CMS reduced by 2.5% the work-value and intraservice-time inputs used to price specified physician services that are not billed by time.

The adjustment applies to specified Medicare physician services and does not automatically reduce all healthcare reimbursement as providers adopt AI.

The spending plans and healthcare partnerships point to a growing overlap between large-scale computing investment and healthcare operations. The Microsoft-Mayo model is initially focused on Mayo’s clinical environment, while the CVS-Google Cloud partnership targets consumer engagement and healthcare data infrastructure.