Alphabet, the parent company of search giant Google (GOOG, GOOGL) blew away Wall Street’s second quarter estimates on Tuesday, bolstered by strength in advertising and cloud computing.
Here were the main results from Alphabet’s report, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Thanks to the tech giant’s linchpin, Google Search, ad revenues skyrocketed by 69% from the comparable year ago quarter. Overall total revenue soared by 62% from Q2 of 2020.
During the quarter, “there was a rising tide of online activity in many parts of the world, and we’re proud that our services helped so many consumers and businesses,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.
“Our long-term investments in AI and Google Cloud are helping us drive significant improvements in everyone’s digital experience,” he added.
The stock jumped by over 2% after hours, which if those gains hold will propel its market cap closer to 2 trillion in Wednesday’s session.
In an exclusive sit-down with Yahoo Finance in May, CEO Sundar Pichai called Search his “ultimate moonshot,” even in light of the other projects the company is involved with.
“I see all the limitations. Even today, when people type in a complex query, we’re looking at keywords trying to match it,” he said.
“We still have a long way to go to actually understand what the user’s intent is, the context, where they are coming from, and giving the best answer. So that is still the moonshot,” Pichai added.
Google, along with other big technology like Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL), have found themselves in the eye of a political storm, as lawmakers in Washington debate whether to tighten regulation on large technology behemoths. Pichai has warned that internet freedom is under threat as governments move to safeguard user privacy and data, and block the dissemination of misinformation.
