A Message From Monument Traders Alliance

Dear Reader,

Wall Street may have already locked up the cheapest AI-energy stock most Americans have never heard of.

Institutions own approximately 88% of its shares.

BlackRock reportedly owns 32 million shares worth roughly $716 million. Vanguard owns another 48 million shares worth nearly $1.1 billion.

One major investor nearly doubled its position to 8.2 million shares. And management authorized the repurchase of 40 million shares.

That is not casual interest.

That is serious money surrounding one virtually unknown American company.

So what do they see?

This company generates approximately $3.2 billion in operating income while carrying a market value of only around $8 billion.

It controls a massive American oil and natural gas operation at a moment when AI data centers desperately need reliable electricity.

It has even signed a multi-year, multimillion-dollar agreement with Palantir to use AI to improve equipment reliability, well performance, raw-material use and distribution.

Wall Street knows the name.

Trump publicly defended the company when a major trading partner targeted its profits by raising their taxes.

But Main Street remains largely outside the room.

I believe that information gap creates the opportunity. Once the broader market connects this company's profits, energy assets and AI relationship, its current valuation could become much harder to justify.

But I refuse to ignore what Wall Street is quietly accumulating.

Click here to learn about the Ultimate Stock Unicorn.

Yours in smart speculation,

Karim Rahemtulla, Head Fundamental Tactician
Monument Traders Alliance

P.S. Institutions control 88% of the shares. BlackRock and Vanguard own tens of millions.

Management authorized a 40-million-share buyback. Main Street may be the last group through the door - click here now to learn about the AI-energy stock Wall Street already knows.

The End of Big Tech Buybacks? Only One Hyperscaler Is Still Repurchasing Shares

Submitted by Leo Miller. Article Published: 9/14/2026.

Big Tech giants seem to be spending as much as they can on AI infrastructure. Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) spending caused its free cash flow (FCF) to come in at negative $5.9 billion last quarter, while Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ: META) FCF fell more than 90% to $784 million. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the only AI hyperscaler to post FCF above $1 billion. However, its FCF still fell 23% year over year (YOY) to $19.6 billion.

Against this backdrop, something investors have become accustomed to seeing from these companies has started to fall by the wayside: share buybacks. As investors consider the outlooks for these stocks, this dynamic is worth recognizing as the AI buildout pressures their ability to return capital.

On the other side of the equation, the company to which these three hyperscalers hand billions of dollars each quarter is buying back shares like never before.

Alphabet Halts Repurchases, Opts for Issuance

Among this group, Alphabet has shown by far the largest drop-off in repurchase activity. Notably, the company spent $61.5 billion on buybacks in 2023, $62.2 billion in 2024 and $45.7 billion in 2025.

Over this period, it reduced its outstanding share count by more than 6%, providing a solid tailwind for metrics such as earnings per share (EPS). However, by the fourth quarter of 2025, buybacks had fallen to just $5.5 billion, a decline of more than 64% YOY.

This was the last time Alphabet bought back shares, as the company has made no repurchases in 2026. In fact, its outstanding share count is now increasing. In the second quarter, Alphabet issued $30.5 billion in shares, bringing its outstanding share count up approximately 1.4% since the start of the year. Its share count could rise even further.

This $30.5 billion represented just a portion of its larger, more than $80 billion equity offering, as Alphabet seeks additional funding for its AI investments.

Meta’s Share Count Increases as Buybacks Tank

A very similar story is playing out at Meta. In 2023, 2024 and 2025, the company spent $19.8 billion, $30.1 billion and $26.2 billion on buybacks, respectively. This helped Meta lower its outstanding share count by around 3% during that period.

However, as with Alphabet, Meta’s repurchases have dwindled to zero in 2026. Furthermore, the company’s outstanding share count has risen by around 1.4% since the third quarter of 2025. This is the result of Meta’s share-based compensation rising steeply as repurchases have fallen.

Notably, Meta’s stock-based compensation rose more than 58% YOY to $7.66 billion in its latest quarter and increased 30% from the first quarter. While Meta’s FCF remained slightly positive last quarter, analysts do not expect this to continue. As a result, Meta’s buyback spending is unlikely to recover in the near future, placing further upward pressure on its share count.

Microsoft’s Buybacks Hold Steady, But for How Long?

Amid Microsoft’s higher FCF, the company’s buyback spending is also showing greater resilience than Alphabet's and Meta's. In its fiscal years 2024, 2025 and 2026, Microsoft spent $17.2 billion, $18.4 billion and $22.3 billion on repurchases. (Note that because Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June, the timeline is two quarters ahead of Alphabet and Meta.)

While this spending was large in absolute terms, Microsoft’s share count changed little during this period, with buybacks primarily offsetting stock-based compensation. Still, in the first half of calendar 2026, Microsoft spent $6.8 billion on buybacks, a slight increase from the $6.7 billion it spent during the same period last year. As a result, its share count has not risen, unlike those of Alphabet and Meta.

While Microsoft expects to remain FCF positive over the next 12 months, analysts still see its FCF declining significantly. This could put pressure on its future buyback capacity and cause its share count to rise.

Investors may notice the omission of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) from this discussion. This is because Amazon has not historically engaged in significant buybacks, with its last repurchases coming in 2022.

NVIDIA’s Buybacks Hit Record Levels as Big Tech Spending Soars

Considering this data, investors may have to accept that buybacks are not a top concern for hyperscalers at the moment and likely will not be for some time. However, as these firms spend billions on NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) AI computing and networking products, the company’s buybacks are soaring.

Last quarter, NVIDIA spent a record $19.7 billion on buybacks, up from $19.3 billion in the prior quarter. In mid-2022, the company ended a more than five-year run of increasing its share count.

Since then, NVIDIA's share count has dropped approximately 3.5%.

With $99 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization and FCF rising 59% YOY to $21.4 billion last quarter, the company is in a strong position to continue lowering its share count, in contrast to the other hyperscalers.