Anthropic and OpenAI stakes are inflating Big Tech earnings

Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet booked large paper gains from stakes in private AI labs this quarter that materially lifted reported profits, CNBC reported on August 3, 2026. The gains — recorded as valuation increases on private investments rather than revenue from products or services — pushed headline earnings and EPS higher even though they do not reflect recurring operating income. (cnbc.com)

That distinction matters for investors parsing whether the AI boom is translating into sustainable profit growth. CNBC and analysts cited in the piece say the contribution from private-stake revaluations makes broad S&P earnings growth look stronger than underlying business performance, and that stripping out those gains would reduce the quarter’s reported growth materially. (cnbc.com)

Amazon's $53.4 billion Anthropic gain

CNBC reports Amazon recorded a more than $53.4 billion investment gain primarily tied to its stake in Anthropic, a figure that turned headline year‑over‑year earnings growth of “more than 240%” into something closer to 17% when those gains are excluded, according to the article. (cnbc.com) The network also notes Amazon is a major backer of OpenAI and committed $50 billion to the ChatGPT maker in late February, placing the company on both sides of the private‑valuation story. (cnbc.com)

Amazon’s public filings and investor statements for the quarter were not linked in the CNBC story; that gap leaves open questions about how Amazon presented the gain in its SEC filings and whether the company differentiated one‑time valuation moves from operating results. A Reuters/Bloomberg confirmation of the same numbers would further validate CNBC’s accounting of the effect — until then the claim rests on CNBC’s reporting and company disclosures it cites. (cnbc.com)

Microsoft’s $3.2 billion Anthropic and $480 million OpenAI boosts

Microsoft’s investor release for fiscal Q4 confirms discrete investment items added $0.27 to diluted EPS, including a $3.2 billion gain tied to Anthropic and a $480 million quarter‑to‑quarter gain linked to its OpenAI holdings. (microsoft.com) The company also disclosed that OpenAI‑related gains lifted full‑year net income by $4.963 billion, or $0.67 per diluted share, in fiscal 2026. (microsoft.com)

Microsoft separates those items from its non‑GAAP results and labels them discrete, non‑core impacts — an internal acknowledgment that the valuation gains are not the same as revenue from Azure, Microsoft 365, or other recurring services. That caveat reinforces CNBC’s central critique: these are paper gains, not operating profit. (microsoft.com)

How much growth disappears without private‑stake markups

CNBC cites analyst Dhillon saying aggregate earnings growth would be “around 29%” without Alphabet and Amazon’s private‑company stakes, a sharp retreat from the headline numbers that investors saw this reporting season. (cnbc.com) The implication: indexes and analyst models that use reported EPS may be overstating the strength of the recovery in tech earnings.

Skeptics caution that valuation markups are part of investment accounting and can be legitimate — firms with lasting ownership might one day monetize those stakes — but they add volatility and complicate comparisons with companies generating growth from core products. CNBC’s reporting underscores that distinction; Microsoft’s own filings echo it. (cnbc.com) (microsoft.com)

Some investor groups will treat the gains as useful indicators of future value; others will strip them out when modeling operating performance. That split helps explain why market reactions to the earnings season have been uneven: headline EPS beats can mask underlying softness once paper investment gains are excluded.

Looking ahead, the next concrete metric to watch is how Alphabet and Amazon document these valuation gains in their SEC filings and quarterly letters, and whether third‑party auditors or analysts reclassify them in consensus earnings models. Those disclosures — expected with routine 10‑Q/10‑K filings and earnings comments over the coming weeks — will determine whether this quarter’s AI‑valuation tailwind is transient noise or a new line item investors must bake into long‑term forecasts.