Q2 2026 Earnings Season Preview: Big Tech Reports — What to Watch

Q2 2026 earnings season opens with the money-center banks on July 14–15 (JPMorgan, Goldman, Citi, Wells) and crescendos with Big Tech in the last week of July. Consensus has S&P 500 earnings growing roughly 22% year over year on ~12.1% revenue growth — the strongest combination since 2022 — driven overwhelmingly by AI-infrastructure capex flowing through to semis, power and cloud.

The three questions that decide the quarter

• Is AI capex still accelerating? Combined hyperscaler capex guidance is the single most market-moving number of the season — any deceleration hits the entire semis complex.
• Are AI revenues showing up? Investors want inference revenue and copilot attach rates, not just infrastructure spend. Microsoft's AI run-rate disclosure and Meta's ad-pricing gains are the tells.
• Do margins hold? With 22% earnings growth priced in, gross-margin misses get punished. Watch energy and depreciation lines as datacenter fleets age.

GOOGL$345.9-0.13%Neutral

First mover on Jul 22 — its capex guide and Gemini monetisation commentary set expectations for everyone reporting after it.

MSFT$495.4-0.30%Bullish

Azure AI services remain the cleanest AI-revenue disclosure in the group; copilot seat growth is the number to watch.

Positioning note: with indices at highs and expectations elevated, beats are likely to be sold and any guide-down punished hard. Staggered exposure — or simply holding through the window — beats trying to trade each print. FurlPay users can track every name on its market page, where reports will surface as they land.