Overview
- Alphabet reported roughly $120 billion in Q2 revenue and a $112.1 billion net profit after markets closed Wednesday, but about $99 billion of that profit came from revaluing investment stakes rather than operating cash.
- Google Cloud revenue surged about 82 percent year over year to roughly $24.7–24.8 billion, a jump company leaders attribute to strong demand for AI services and infrastructure.
- The company raised full‑year capital spending guidance to $195–205 billion and said spending will be meaningfully higher next year, with about $45 billion spent in the quarter to expand data centers, power and custom chips.
- Free cash flow turned negative for the quarter at roughly minus $5.9 billion for the first time, and investors sold shares after hours, sending the stock down several percent.
- Large equity holdings—notably SpaceX and Anthropic—drove the valuation gains, and analysts warn that the shift to capital‑intensive AI buildouts could strain liquidity, reduce buybacks, and lower multi‑year returns as the industry competes for chips and data‑center capacity.