Alphabet Must Show This on Oct. 28 or the Stock Could Stall

Alphabet's Oct. 28 earnings report will be critical for investors to assess whether Google Cloud's growing profits are translating into actual cash flow. The company posted negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion in Q2 despite strong cloud growth, and is now spending more on capex ($195-205B annually) than it generates in operating cash flow ($185.7B over trailing 12 months). Investors should focus on whether operating cash flow returns to the $45-50 billion range to confirm the AI investment is self-funding, or if the company continues relying on shareholder capital.