Alphabet’s heavy cloud spending drives bigger-than-expected cash burn

Oct 28 (Reuters) Alphabet reported a higher cash burn on Wednesday than analysts expected as it spends heavily to boost capacity for its cloud business, sending its shares ​down more than 6% in extended trading. The company reported ‌negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion, compared with analysts estimate of a cash burn of $36 million, according to data compiled by LSEG. Revenue at Google Cloud more than doubled to $30.71 billion in the third quarter ended September, ‌compared ​with analysts average estimate of a 95.1% ⁠increase to $29.57 billion. The third-largest ⁠cloud services provider globally, behind Amazon Web Services and Microsoft s Azure, has continued to expand enterprise commitments, supported by multi-year cloud and AI infrastructure deals across cybersecurity, retail and financial ​services. The results underscore Alphabet s position as the primary beneficiary of surging enterprise AI spending, easing investor concerns that heavy capital ⁠expenditures on computing ca