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$GOOG Alphabet Inc. raised its capital spending forecast to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion this year, up from a previous forecast of $190 billion. The company's quarterly cash flow was negative for the first time since going public, with negative free cash flow of $5.9 billion in the period, and its cloud revenue totaled $24.77 billion, up 82% from a year earlier. Alphabet's investment portfolio has become a source of upside for the company, with gains in the value of its investments totaling nearly $100 billion for the quarter, sending net income soaring. Shares fell more than 6% on Thursday. It was a reminder that the full cost of Silicon Valley’s AI rivalry is still largely unknown. Alphabet was the first of the big tech companies to report quarterly results. Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. follow next week. Altogether, the four companies telegraphed in April that they’d be spending as much as $725 billion this year on their AI ambitions. If Alphabet is any indication, that sum will be larger by the end of next week. That’s even while the returns on those investments remain unclear. Alphabet’s bigger spending plan “does not sit well,” Investing.com senior analyst Thomas Monteiro said. “Add to that an increasing rates environment and a continuous supply-demand crunch in AI infrastructure, and the notion that the company would fund itself with cash flows forever might be starting to fade.” In another indication of the immensity of Alphabet’s capital spending, the company’s quarterly cash flow was negative for the first time since going public more than two decades ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Negative free cash flow came in at $5.9 billion in the period.