Market snapshot · September 18, 2026 close
S&P 500 (SPY) $761.69 −0.13% Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) $721.45 +0.60% Dow (DIA) $515.88 −0.48% Russell 2000 (IWM) $284.10 −0.52% 10-Year Treasury (IEF) $90.80 −0.49% Crude Oil (USO) $153.82 −0.93% Gold (GLD) $401.17 +0.74% US Dollar Index (UUP) $28.39 −0.02% Volatility (VXX) $17.76 +0.31% Semiconductors (SMH) $573.00 +2.17% Silver (SLV) $59.93 +1.65% Emerging Markets (EEM) $67.03 +0.19% Bitcoin (BTC) $81,055.00 +4.51% Ethereum (ETH) $2,630.20 +5.92% S&P 500 (SPY) $761.69 −0.13% Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) $721.45 +0.60% Dow (DIA) $515.88 −0.48% Russell 2000 (IWM) $284.10 −0.52% 10-Year Treasury (IEF) $90.80 −0.49% Crude Oil (USO) $153.82 −0.93% Gold (GLD) $401.17 +0.74% US Dollar Index (UUP) $28.39 −0.02% Volatility (VXX) $17.76 +0.31% Semiconductors (SMH) $573.00 +2.17% Silver (SLV) $59.93 +1.65% Emerging Markets (EEM) $67.03 +0.19% Bitcoin (BTC) $81,055.00 +4.51% Ethereum (ETH) $2,630.20 +5.92%
AEACapital Research

Independent student research — not an investment firm or financial advice

Competitive Comparison

Meta vs. Alphabet vs. Microsoft vs. Amazon

Four mega-cap AI-capex bets, two of which I hold outright and two of which I've chosen to watch instead — compared on growth-adjusted valuation and the scale of their AI spending.

MetricMeta Platforms (META)Alphabet (GOOGL)Microsoft (MSFT)Amazon (AMZN)
PEG ratio0.901.881.581.47
EV/EBITDA14.02x24.55x19.61x18.72x
Capex (2026)$115–135B (guidance)−$109.92B (TTM)$97.23B (TTM)−$151.00B (TTM)

PEG ratio, compared

GOOGL
1.88
MSFT
1.58
AMZN
1.47
META
0.90

Same PEG ratio figures as the table above, plotted for a direct read. Bold = held in this book.

Market cap, P/E, PEG, EV/EBITDA, and capex sourced via public filings and financial-data aggregators (GuruFocus, StockAnalysis, company earnings releases), as of August 2026. PEG ratio sourced primarily from GuruFocus where available; different providers use different growth-rate assumptions, so figures elsewhere for the same stock can vary by several multiples. Gold-highlighted column(s) indicate the name(s) actually held in this book.

Why Meta and Alphabet, not Microsoft or Amazon

All four are funding massive AI infrastructure buildouts. The PEG picture has shifted since the prior update: Meta (0.90) now screens as the cheapest of the four on a growth-adjusted basis, with Amazon (1.47) and Microsoft (1.58) next, and Alphabet (1.88) — previously the cheapest — now the most expensive, reflecting the market re-rating Alphabet's growth expectations upward faster than its earnings have caught up. I hold Meta because its core ad-targeting business is a real, checkable cash engine funding the AI bet, not a story on its own; Alphabet for a credible long-horizon AI research lead, even at today's richer multiple. Microsoft and Amazon are watchlist names rather than holdings mainly for portfolio-construction reasons, not a fundamentals verdict against them — Amazon's negative TTM capex-adjusted free cash flow in particular is worth watching before I'd add it outright, and both would add real overlap with my existing AI-infrastructure exposure through NBIS, CRWV, and VRT rather than diversify it.