Ryan McMorrowJul 23, 2026 – 10.10amSan Francisco | Google burned through cash in the second quarter for the first time since going public decades ago as gargantuan artificial intelligence infrastructure spending has transformed it from an asset-light business into a capital-intensive one.The company said free cash flow for the three-month period to end June turned to minus $US5.9 billion ($8.4 billion), much lower than analysts had expected, as it again upped its spending forecast for data centres and other AI hardware.Financial TimesSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles