The biggest reporting day of Q1 earnings season so far caps off with four of the biggest big tech players reporting: Amazon (AMZN Quick QuoteAMZN - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT Quick QuoteMSFT - Free Report) , Intel (INTC Quick QuoteINTC - Free Report) and Alphabet (GOOGL Quick QuoteGOOGL - Free Report) . As we've seen in other sectors during this earnings season, positive surprises on the headline numbers continue to abound.

Internet of Things giant (and one-company wrecking ball of big-box retail) Amazon.com has released an earnings beat directly after the closing bell today to $1.48 per share on quarterly sales of $35.7 billion. These figures favorably compare to the $1.03 per share and $35.39 billion expected in the Zacks consensus estimate. Amazon Web Services (AWS), now the company's most profitable business, brought in $3.6 billion for the quarter, which is in-line with expectations. Amazon shares are up 5% in the post-market to fresh all-time highs. For more, click here.

Intel beat earnings estimates by a penny to 66 cents per share on $14.8 billion in Q1 revenues, which is basically in-line with estimates. Demand in high-performance computing is what Intel's top brass is chalking this up to. This marks at least the fifth straight earnings beat for Intel, though by a slimmer margin this time around.

Software behemoth Microsoft posted a 4-cent beat for its fiscal Q3 earnings to 73 cents per share. Sales in the quarter amounted to $23.56 billion, just a smidge higher than the Zacks consensus was looking for. Guidance for upcoming quarters and full years will be addressed in the upcoming earnings call. Microsoft is pleased with the gains it has made in the cloud space recently.

Search engine king Google's holding company Alphabet posted a big beat on the bottom line: $7.73 per share, where analysts were looking for $7.24. Revenues were even a bigger stunner in the quarter, bringing in $24.75 billion as opposed to the estimated $19.65 billion for the last 3 months. Paid clicks rose 44% year over year while costs per click fell 19%. You could do a lot worse.