Google is still thriving while the company navigates through a pivotal shift to artificial intelligence and battles regulators trying to topple its internet empire.
The latest evidence of Google’s prosperity emerged Tuesday with the release of its corporate parent Alphabet Inc.’s results for the July-September period. Both Alphabet’s profit and revenue increased at a brisker pace than industry analysts anticipated, thanks primarily to a moneymaking machine powered by Google’s ubiquitous search engine.
Alphabet earned $26.3 billion, or $2.12 per share during the most recent quarter, a 34% increase from a year ago. Revenue rose 15% from the same time last year to $88.27 billion.
“Our commitment to innovation as well as the long-term focus and investment in AI are paying off,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said during a call discussing the results.
The profits would have been even higher if Google wasn’t pouring so much money into building up its AI arsenal in a technological arms race that includes other industry heavyweights Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook parent Meta Platforms and rising star OpenAI. The AI investments are the primary reason Google’s capital expenditures in the past quarter soared 62% from the same time last year to $13.1 billion.
The AI spending will likely stay at roughly the same level during the current October-December period, and the rise even higher next year, according to Anat Ashkenazi, Alphabet’s chief financial officer. But Ashkenazi also emphasized the Mountain View, California, company will act on cost-cutting opportunities in other areas to help boost profits. Alphabet already has trimmed its payroll from more than 190,000 worldwide employees early last year to about 181,000 workers now.
In an example of how AI can perform tasks that once required human brainpower, Pichai said the technology is now writing more than 25% of the company’s new computer coding.
Investors seemed pleased with the both the performance and what they heard from company executives. Alphabet’s stock price climbed 5% in extended trading after the numbers came out and the conference call was completed.
Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro said Alphabet’s showing makes it likely more good news will be coming for Big Tech as this week progresses, with quarterly reports from Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Apple still to come in the days ahead.
But a 4-year-old antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice has cast a cloud of uncertainty over Google’s future.
After weighing the evidence presented during a high-profile trial last year, a federal judge declared Google’s search engine is an illegal monopoly — a decision that has opened the door for a major shake-up. Earlier this month, the Justice Department suggested it might seek to break up Google as part of penalties that will be determined by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta next summer.
