Alphabet shares fell 8% on Wednesday as investors balked at the Google parent's slowing cloud growth and planned $75 billion capital spending for the year, underscoring growing fears over Big Tech's escalating artificial intelligence costs.

Alphabet's fourth-quarter earnings day is here, with numbers expected to be released after the markets close Tuesday. This will be followed by an earnings call at roughly 4:30 p.m. ET. The stock has been riding high over the past month as investors grew bullish over Google's AI investment.

Alphabet shares fell more than 9% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company reported fourth-quarter results that missed on revenue expectations and announced more artificial intelligence investments. Earnings per share for the Google parent company beat analysts' estimates by two cents. Here are other numbers Wall Street was watching:

Alphabet will face investor scrutiny over its massive spending on AI when it reports earnings on Tuesday, as revenue growth at the Google parent likely slowed in the holiday quarter due to a slowdown in its advertising and cloud businesses.

The search giant said it will spend a staggering $75 billion this year as the AI arms race heats up. Investors may have concerns about whether it will pay off. Shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG),

Key Takeaways Shares of Google parent Alphabet tumbled Wednesday amid worries about whether the tech giant's spending on AI will pay off. Several analysts lowered their price targets for the stock, citing concerns about the company's weaker-than-expected cloud growth and plans to ramp up spending on AI.

Generally speaking, investors do not appreciate slowing growth, as it suggests higher valuations (which are reflected in the share price) cannot be maintained or increased over longer periods. Even so,