Alphabet revenue was $90.2 billion in Q1, a 12 percent increase year-over-year that reflects “robust momentum” across Google Search and YouTube ads and Google Cloud, each delivering double-digit growth rates. Google Cloud was up 28 percent to $12.3 billion in divisions including AI infrastructure and generative AI solutions. Net profit surged 46 percent to $34.5 billion while operating income grew 20 percent to $30.6 billion. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the quarter was “super exciting” due to breakthroughs in performance by Gemini 2.5, calling it “our most intelligent AI” and a strong foundation “for future innovation.”

“Google’s earnings power is holding up well, even as the Internet giant spends record sums on artificial intelligence in the midst of global economic turbulence,” writes The Wall Street Journal, noting “most of Google’s business isn’t directly affected by tariffs on foreign goods, but the company draws a lot of advertising and cloud revenue from companies that are affected.”

Chinese companies Temu and Shein are significantly reducing their digital ad spend in the U.S. In addition to affecting Google’s YouTube, the move has impacted Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat and TikTok, according to Reuters.

Tariffs aren’t the only ill wind blowing the company’s way. “Google might be threatened with a breakup after losing two antitrust cases,” reports The New York Times. And while Google Search faces new AI competition from the likes of ChatGPT Search and Perplexity, Alphabet’s own “AI Overviews, a new form of Google searching, has 1.5 billion users a month,” notes NYT, citing a stat shared by Pichai in the earnings release.

Variety reports that YouTube ad revenue when compared to Q1 2024 was up 10.3 percent to $8.9 billion in Q1 2025, when the company tallied “more than 270 million paid subscriptions overall, driven by YouTube and Google One.”

Alphabet’s capital expenditures exuded confidence, reaching a record $17.2 billion for the three-month period ending March 31. Since Alphabet doesn’t offer guidance for future quarters, it’s difficult to know how anxious the company may be.

On the earnings call, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said he anticipates “a slight headwind to our ads business in 2025.”

But WSJ suggests the company “isn’t yet blinking in its plans to invest aggressively in generative AI” with a “plan to put $75 billion toward capital expenditures this year — more than double its annual average over the past five years.”