Google parent Alphabet sees double-digit growth as AI bets boost cloud business | Alphabet

Alphabet, parent of Google and YouTube, saw a third straight quarter of better-than-anticipated gains as it reported earnings on Tuesday. The tech giant had largely exceeded analyst expectations for the previous two quarters, and Tuesday’s results showed growth in both digital advertising and demand for Google Cloud. Shares rose in after-hours training.

“The momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools,” said the CEO, Sundar Pichai.

Analysts expected 12% year-on-year revenue growth, to $86.23bn, and earnings per share of $1.85. Alphabet reported 15% overall growth with $88.27bn in revenue for the quarter, and $2.12 earnings per share. Advertising revenue grew 10%, and cloud services revenue rose 35%. Pichai singled out growth at YouTube in both ads and subscriptions, which likewise beat analyst expectations.

Enthusiasm for new artificial intelligence products in recent years has buoyed Google’s stock price, which has increased 20% in 2024 and more than 150% in the past five years. The company has been a leading player in the AI boom, although it is often seen as one step behind the cutting-edge offerings of OpenAI, which has partnered closely with rival Microsoft. Asked about the perception of being one step behind, Pichai compared Google to a neural network, the underpinning technique used to train AI that mimics the human brain, and said the company was “forming new synapses” to facilitate innovation.

Along with that expansion, though, has come an increase in spending. Google’s capital expenditures rose 62 year-over-year to $13bn. The company expects it to stay at that level next quarter and rise further in 2025.

In spite of its success, Google has faced a raft of legal troubles in 2024. The earnings call is the first since the company’s landmark loss in its antitrust case against the US government. Lawyers for the US justice department are weighing a proposal to break up the Android maker after a judge declared it an illegal monopoly. Multibillion-dollar agreements between Google and other tech giants, a focal point of the trial, were deemed anticompetitive; the judge may undo them in the aftermath of the monopoly ruling or separate subsidiaries from the parent company entirely.

Asked about the antitrust litigation onTuesday, Pichai said: “Some of the early proposals from the DoJ have been far reaching, and I think they could have unintended consequences with the dynamic tech sector and American leadership there. We plan to engage very vigorously there.”

Earlier this month, Google was ordered to overhaul the Google Play store as a result of another antitrust loss, to the Fortnite maker Epic Games. Google must make Android apps available from competing sources and cannot forbid use of in-app payment methods, according to the judge’s order.

Yet another antitrust trial, which started in September, is ongoing. The US justice department alleges that Google built an illegal monopoly over online advertising.

Google’s self-driving car division, Waymo, has deployed a fleet of autonomous vehicles in several US cities and begun offering paid rides, 150,000 per day, Pichai said on the call. The same day as the earnings report, the subsidiary announced it had raised $5.6bn in funding from both its parent and third-party investors. Though not a significant revenue driver compared with the billions generated by advertising, the self-driving car business holds growth potential, and the pace at which Waymo can set up operations in new cities is increasing, Pichai said on the earnings call.