Alphabet revenue unexpectedly rises in first quarter amid industry slowdown

theguardian.com:

Alphabet stocks rose in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the tech firm beat analyst expectations for first-quarter earnings, marking an unexpectedly bright spot in the otherwise struggling tech sector.

The company reported first-quarter revenue of $69.8bn, up 3% year-over-year and above analyst predictions of $68.9bn. Its cloud business reported a profit for the first time since its launch, taking in $191m.

Shares were up nearly 3% in after-hours trading, as investors were heartened by Alphabet’s announcement of a $70bn stock buyback.

In a statement accompanying the report, the company’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, acknowledged the growing momentum of its cloud services and Alphabet is continuing to invest in search capabilities, including in the use of artificial intelligence.

“We introduced important product updates anchored in deep computer science and AI,” he said. “Our North Star is providing the most helpful answers for our users, and we see huge opportunities ahead, continuing our long track record of innovation.”

Artificial intelligence was a big focus of the day, mentioned upwards of 60 times during a call with investors accompanying the report. Pichai said the company would accelerate its development of AI, with safeguards in place. After the success of Microsoft-owned ChatGPT, Alphabet announced Bard – its own AI chatbot – in February.

“As we continue to bring AI to our products, our AI principles and the highest tenets of information integrity remain at the core of all our work,” Pichai said.

While in previous earnings reports Alphabet fared better than some of its peers such as Meta and Twitter, it had stumbled in recent months, announcing in August it would freeze hiring. In January it cut more than 12,000