The “baraka” remained firmly in line with Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, during the third quarter of the year. As in the two previous quarters, the internet giant comfortably exceeded the initial expectations of analysts and grew above expectations in the period between July and September 2024 thanks to its robust digital advertising division and its thriving cloud computing business.

On Wall Street, analysts anticipated that Google's parent company would experience year-on-year growth of 12% during the third quarter of the year. However, Alphabet far exceeded those expectations and its turnover jumped 15% to reach $88.27 billion, while its profits were $2.12 per share (compared to the $1.85 initially expected by analysts).

«The momentum that the company is experiencing is absolutely extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, our long-term focus on AI and our investment in it are paying off, as both our customers and partners are benefiting greatly from our AI tools,” emphasises Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet.

Revenue generated by Google's booming advertising division grew by 10%, while the turnover of the company's cloud division soared by 35%. And as for YouTube, the figures smiled on Google's video platform both in terms of the number of subscribers and the revenue from advertising.
The AI ​​boom has boosted the value of Google shares on the stock market

The enthusiasm for AI has fuelled the value of Google shares on the stock markets in recent months, which has increased by 20% in 2024 and more than 150% in the last five years. Google is one of the leading companies in the field of AI and has been able to capitalize on the "boom" of this technology, although it is often criticized for falling behind OpenAI and its partner Microsoft.

Even though Google brought a lot of money into its coffers in the period between July and September 2024, it also had to face large expenses, which in fact accounted for a year-on-year growth of 62% to 13 billion dollars. Looking ahead to the current quarter, the multinational expects to maintain the level of spending, essential to sowing the seeds of innovation, and looking ahead to 2025 it already anticipates that expenses will grow even more.

Although on the financial front the third quarter of the year was rich in good news for Google, the truth is that between July and September the company had to deal with multiple problems of a legal nature. Last August, Google was sued by the US government and a judge accused the company of being a monopolist. Since then, the US Department of Justice has raised the possibility of breaking up Google in an attempt to break up its monopoly in the field of internet search.

Pichai already said yesterday that the measures that the US government plans to implement were clearly excessive and could have dire consequences for the dynamic US technology sector.

In addition, earlier this month a judge ordered Google to open its Play Store app store to competition after losing a lawsuit with Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite.

In September, another antitrust trial was also initiated against Google, where it is being decided whether or not the company enjoys an illegal monopoly in the area of ​​online advertising.