Internet giant: Google parent exceeds Wall Street expectations

Google and Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai emphasized that there was a record number of search queries in the quarter. In recent years there has been much speculation as to whether new rivals that use artificial intelligence to provide answers rather than links to queries could make life difficult for Google’s leading search engine. But the Internet giant itself integrated AI functions into its search engine – and claims that it is being used more as a result.

Google’s advertising revenue – the company’s most important moneymaker – increased by 15.5 percent year-on-year to $77.25 billion in the last quarter. The cloud business jumped by a good 63 percent to $20 billion.