Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (pictured) credited the company’s full stack approach to AI for underpinning its growth during a strong Q1, as it saw gains across its major business units.
In a statement, Pichai said a strong first quarter for the Google-parent reflected healthy growth and momentum, while highlighting advancements in AI including the rollout of its Gemini 2.5 model, as well as strength in Search which was boosted by engagement with features like AI Overviews.
The service now has 1.5 billion users per month, while its YouTube and Google One services helped it to surpass 270 million paid subscriptions.
On AI Overviews, which provides users AI-generated answers on top of its search page, Pichai said in an earnings call that it was “leaning in heavily here, continuing to roll the feature out in new countries, to more users and to more queries”.
Revenue for the quarter grew 12 per cent year-on-year to $90.2 billion, with net income jumping 46 per cent to $34.5 billion.
It took in $77.3 billion from Google Services, reflecting a 10 per cent increase, fuelled by Search, Google subscriptions, platforms, devices and YouTube ads. Breaking out ads, the business posted an 8.5 per cent revenue rise to $66.9 billion.
Google Cloud revenue increased 28 per cent to $12.3 billion, led by growth from its Google Cloud Platform, AI infrastructure and generative AI offerings.
The figures certainly indicate that the company’s big bet on AI is beginning to pay off.
Alphabet stated earlier this year it plans to invest $75 billion this year to expand its data centre capacity, slightly lower than Microsoft’s $80 billion commitment.