Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) compete for enterprise computing budgets, but buying their shares also means financing the servers behind those services. At the October 7 close, Microsoft cost about 59 times trailing free cash flow, against Alphabet's 80 times. Alphabet's faster cloud growth therefore comes with a higher price for cash left after capital spending. That difference changes the familiar argument that Alphabet looks cheaper on reported earnings. Its June quarter included a $98 billion net gain in other income, primarily unrealized investment gains. Those gains do not measure the profitability of selling cloud services.
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