Big Tech stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic inflate reported S&P 500 earnings growth

According to LSEG data reported on Monday 3 August 2026, second quarter earnings growth for S&P 500 companies is running at about 48 percent year on year, but stripping out the gains booked on rising valuations of private artificial intelligence companies held by Alphabet and Amazon brings that figure down to roughly 29 percent. The analyst consensus for the quarter had been 24 percent growth.

Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet hold stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic and, in one case, SpaceX, and must record increases in the value of those holdings in their quarterly income statements. Amazon booked a 53.4 billion dollar gain in the quarter that the company said came primarily from its Anthropic investment; its earnings growth was more than 240 percent including that gain and closer to 17 percent without it. Alphabet's bottom line growth was near 300 percent including gains on SpaceX and Anthropic, and closer to 23 percent without them. Microsoft reported a 3.2 billion dollar net income gain it attributed mostly to Anthropic, plus a 480 million dollar gain on its OpenAI stake.

On the same data, companies have reported earnings 7 percent above expectations this quarter, against a long term average of 4.4 percent.