Google is still striving to claw back its lead in AI. This is the current quarter in which the company has continued its focus on technical infrastructure by capital expensing $12 billion worth of investments. On a related note, CEO Sundar Pichai expressed confidence in managing costs and transitioning monetization strategies related to AI effectively, saying, "I am very, very confident we can manage the cost of how to serve these queries" and “comfortable and confident that we will be able to manage the monetization transition here well," as quoted by Bloomberg.
Google's search advertising and YouTube platforms powered the gain. Revenue for search advertising soared 14 per cent to $46.2 billion, but the gain was powered by Google's search advertising and YouTube platforms. With competition growing from Meta and Snap, Google's powerful advertising business shows enervating signs that may sound encouraging for it.
"Google's Cloud business had $9.6 billion in sales and $900 million in profit—both ahead of what analysts had modeled.". Forrester Principal Analyst Lee Sustar spoke of the results, "For years, Google Cloud was typically a sore spot on the Alphabet earnings calls," and added, "These latest results show that Google Cloud's AI offerings got enterprise customers not just to take another look but to spend some serious money," as quoted by Bloomberg. Google Cloud has shown that this is indeed a sturdy unit without depending on the ad businesses of the tech giant to cover its operating losses—just as it has always been.
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