Thursday's close (third-party data): S&P 500 −4.36%, Nasdaq −5.52% (now more than 10% below its October record), Dow −1,833 points (−3.44%). Chips took the worst of it: Nvidia −9.3%, Broadcom −10.4%, AMD −17.3%, Micron −17.5%. The reason given in most coverage is the midterms: worry that data center construction slows, after local ballot measures went against data centers almost everywhere and a Democratic Congress may push restrictions. I wanted to check that against what the buyers of those chips have actually filed in the last two weeks. Four companies, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta, account for most of that spending. All figures below are from their 10-Qs and 8-Ks on EDGAR. 1. Spending hasn't slowed. It doubled. Purchases of property and equipment, July–September 2026 vs the same quarter of 2025: - Amazon: $77.3bn vs $35.1bn - Alphabet: $51.4bn vs $24.0bn - Microsoft: $39.4bn vs $19.4bn - Meta: $34.0bn vs $18.8bn - Total: about $202bn vs $97bn (Amazon's figure is gross purchases, before sale proceeds and incentives. Microsoft's quarter is its fiscal Q1.) 2. It now costs more than the businesses bring in. Operating cash flow in the same quarter: Amazon $42.4bn, Alphabet $42.3bn, Microsoft $58.0bn, Meta $32.8bn. That's about $175bn in total, so the four spent roughly $27bn more on property and equipment than they generated from operations. Only Microsoft covered its capex from operating cash flow. 3. So they're raising outside money, and most of it closed this week. From 8-Ks filed Oct 29 to Nov 5: - Microsoft: $25.0bn of notes in ten tranches, maturing 2028 to 2066, priced Oct 29 and issued Nov 4. Fixed coupons run from 4.85% to 6.35%. Before this, its long-term debt had been shrinking ($31.1bn non-current at Sept 30). - Meta: $15.0bn of notes closed Nov 5 (2031 to 2056, 5.85% to 7.50%). $12.5bn of 6.50% mandatory convertible preferred closed Oct 29. And forward sale agreements on 46 million new Class A shares at an initial forward price of about $623, which Meta can settle any time up to Nov 2027. At that price, that's roughly $28.7bn more. - Alphabet: €6bn of euro notes closed Nov 5 (2028 to 2045, up to 5.25%). Its non-current long-term debt was already $125.1bn at Sept 30, up from $46.6bn at the end of 2025. - Amazon: no new deal in this window, but its non-current long-term debt was $173.1bn at Sept 30, up from $65.7bn at the end of 2025. 4. The cost of that money isn't the same for everyone. Microsoft's 2056 notes pay 6.25%. Meta's 2056 notes, priced five days later, pay 7.50%. Same maturity, 1.25 points apart. They're different credits in different weeks, so it isn't a clean comparison. But lenders are charging Meta noticeably more to fund the same kind of buildout, and Meta is the one also issuing preferred and new common shares in the same two weeks. How I'd frame today: the filings don't show the buildout slowing. Q3 was the biggest spending quarter yet, and the funding deals closed this week. What they do show is that the buildout is now paid for partly with debt and new shares rather than operating cash. That makes it more sensitive to exactly the things that moved today: rates, power costs and permits. If a real slowdown is coming, these are the places it should show up first: - Capex guidance in the January reports (Q4 results) - Whether the pace of bond and equity deals continues or stops - When Meta settles the forward sale, and at what price - The lease footnotes in the 10-Ks: data center leases signed but not yet started For people who follow the chip names: which of these would you watch first, and is there a filing line I'm missing? Not investment advice.