Alphabet, the parent company of the world’s leading search engine Google, has achieved a historic milestone by surpassing 100 billion USD in quarterly revenue for the first time in the third quarter of this year. Market analysts attribute this success to the surge in demand for Google’s cloud services, fueled by the rapid growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
Alphabet’s Q3 earnings report, released on Wednesday, revealed a revenue of 102.3 billion USD. The company posted a net profit of 35 billion USD, with earnings per share (EPS) of 2.87 USD. This quarterly revenue significantly outperformed market expectations, exceeding the 99.89 USD billion forecast by LSEG, a British financial data firm, and representing a 16% year-over-year increase.
The standout performer was the cloud services division. Google Cloud revenue skyrocketed by 34% compared to the previous year, reaching 15.2 billion USD. The division’s future looks exceptionally promising, with an order backlog of 155 billion USD at the end of the quarter, indicating strong potential for sustained growth.
Search and advertising remained the top revenue generator at 56.6 USD billion, while YouTube ad revenue hit 10.3 billion USD. However, Google’s moonshot division, which includes projects like the self-driving car company Waymo, reported 344 million USD in revenue but suffered an operating loss of 1.426 billion USD.
In a statement, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, emphasized the company’s performance, saying, “We have had an extraordinary quarter with double-digit growth across our key business segments.” He added, “Our comprehensive AI strategy is gaining significant traction and rapidly delivering results.” Pichai highlighted that the AI chatbot Gemini now boasts over 650 million monthly active users (MAU), while paid subscriptions for services such as Google One and YouTube Premium have surpassed 300 million.
Google noted that the Q3 results include a 3.5 billion USD charge imposed by the European Commission. Following the earnings announcement, Alphabet’s stock price surged more than 6% in after-hours trading, reaching 291.16 USD.
