Alphabet's profit estimates fall as its cloud business expands

Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) reported fiscal third-quarter earnings after the bell on Tuesday, beating analysts' estimates on revenue and profit, as its cloud business continues to expand and Big Tech's profits with a robust bottom line ushered in.

The search giant reported earnings per share of $2.12 on revenue of $88.27 billion. Analysts expected earnings per share of $1.83 on revenue of $86.44 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

This corresponds to an increase in profits and sales of 37% and 15%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Advertising revenue topped $65.85 billion, compared with analyst expectations of $65.5 billion and up from $59.65 billion in the year-ago period.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the cloud unit's growth in an earnings call on Tuesday, noting that the company's AI portfolio is attracting new customers and leading to bigger deals. Cloud revenue was $11.4 billion, up 35% from the same period last year and exceeding expectations.

Shares of Alphabet rose 4% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

The increase in cloud revenue comes as rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) are also expected to expand their cloud businesses and increase their investments in AI infrastructure. With the introduction of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered chatbots, Google is also facing competition in its own country. On Monday, Information reported that Meta (META) is developing its own search engine to power its Meta AI chatbot and provide users with conversational answers to their questions and prompts.

How the next generation of answer engines will compete with Google's traditional and AI-powered search remains a key question for the company.

Google is the first of the Big Tech platforms to release a report this week. Meta and Microsoft are expected to report quarterly results on Wednesday, followed by Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL). While all mega-cap stocks have posted gains so far this year, companies have taken different paths as investors no longer measure their AI spending and the success of their businesses in lockstep.

Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and economics. Follow Hamza on X @hshaban.

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