Webscale Network Operators: 2Q24 Market Review Capex surge of 51% YoY in 2Q24 the biggest bump since 2Q18; jitters about the Generative AI bubble weigh on outlook, though

Webscale Network Operators: 2Q24 Market Review Capex surge of 51% YoY in 2Q24 the biggest bump since 2Q18; jitters about the Generative AI bubble weigh on outlook, though

This report reviews the growth and development of the webscale network operator (WNO, or webscale) market since 2011. It covers 21 companies. In the most recent 12 months (3Q23-2Q24), webscalers represented $2.47 trillion (T) in revenues (+8.2% YoY), $301 billion (B) in R&D spending (+5.4% YoY), and $226B in capex (+15.4% YoY). They had $612B of cash and short-term investments (-8.5% YoY) on the books as of June 2024, and $527B in total debt (-3.6% YoY). The value of webscalers’ net plant, property & equipment (net PP&E) on the books as of June 2024 was $787B, up 19.8% YoY. Webscalers employed approximately 4.182 million (M) people at the end of 2Q24, up a bit from the June 2023 total of 4.085M.

Below are select highlights from the report:

Revenues: Single quarter revenues in 2Q24 were $614.4 billion (B), up 8.4% YoY. That pushed annualized revenues to $2.466 trillion. Topline growth has been driven by the big 4: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta (FB) and Microsoft. For four straight quarters, all of these companies have recorded double digit revenue growth, well above the rest of the pack.

Capex: After declining 5% in 2023, webscale capex has been on a tear for the first two quarters of 2024, growing 25% and 51% in 1Q24 and 2Q24 respectively. That pushed 2Q24 annualized capex to $226.4 billion in 2Q24, an all-time high and up 15.4% YoY. The surge is driven largely by technology spending, in particular purchases of servers (GPU and CPU) for data center facilities already up and running. The biggest capex outlays in 2Q24 came from Amazon ($17.6B), Microsoft ($13.9B), Alphabet ($13.2B), and Meta (FB) ($8.2B). They are the reason behind the unsustainable surge in the price of NVIDIA stock.

Profitability: Webscale free cash flow margins averaged out to 18.6% for the 2Q24 annualized period, much higher than the 16.3% and 14.4% recorded in the annualized 2Q23 and 2Q22 timeframes.

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