Google's Search and AI Services Generating Billions, Latest Financial Report Reveals
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, reported $85 billion in revenue for the second quarter, driven by strong performances in search, cloud computing, and AI.
The search division alone brought in $48.5 billion. The cloud business reached $10 billion in revenue and earned its first $1 billion in operating profit. CEO Sundar Pichai noted the success of Google’s generative AI solutions, which have generated billions in revenue and attracted over 2 million developers.
Pichai stated in a letter to investors:
“We are innovating across all levels of AI technology. Our strong infrastructure and research teams put us in a great position as technology evolves and new opportunities arise.”
Google has integrated its search and AI services, introducing AI Overviews in Search, now available on Google Chrome. This feature provides summaries of search queries using Google’s large language model, Gemini.
However, users found that AI Overviews sometimes gave incorrect answers, leading Google to remove these faulty responses. Despite this, Pichai claims the feature has increased search usage and user satisfaction.
Google’s advertising division remains strong, with a valuation of $64.6 billion. YouTube ads contributed $8.6 billion, a 13% increase from last year, partly due to blocking ad blockers. Revenue from subscriptions, platforms, and devices totaled $9.3 billion.
Alphabet is expected to grow further with its upcoming hardware event in August, where it will unveil the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold smartphones.
