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The numbers
$90.2 billion — Google’s revenue in the first quarter, beating analysts’ projections of $89.1 billion. The first-quarter revenue represents a 12% year-over-year lift.
$76.5 billion — Google’s Q1 sales in 2025, including $50.7 billion generated through Google Search, outpacing projections. The Google Cloud business, meanwhile, raked in $12.26 billion, a 28% year-over-year increase.
$66.8 billion — Google’s quarterly advertising revenue, coming in above Wall Street estimates of $66.4 billion. YouTube ad revenue specifically increased by about 10% year-over-year, bringing in $8.9 billion in the quarter.
$70 billion — The value of a new stock repurchase program greenlit by Alphabet’s board of directors this week, signaling confidence in the tech giant’s long-term prospects and balance sheet strength.
The watercooler talk
On a call with investors Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai underscored the tech behemoth’s commitment to AI development.
A primary focus for the company is the ongoing development of its core Gemini models.
Google debuted Gemini 2.5 in March, its leading AI model. Gemini models now power 15 unique Google products, each of which have garnered more than 500 million users. Plus, active users of AI Studio and the Gemini API have grown over 200% since the start of 2025.
“The foundation for everything is the frontier model progress we are seeing, and particularly with [Gemini] 2.5, Pro and Flash,” Pichai said. “We are seeing tremendous reception from developers, enterprises, and consumers too, and obviously we are delivering consumer AI experiences across our product portfolio….”
Pichai also highlighted the recent rollout of AI Mode, a product for AI-powered Google Search that expands on the company’s AI Overviews, which use AI to surface information in some user search queries. AI Overviews have now amassed more than 1.5 billion monthly users.
“With the launch of AI overviews, the volume of commercial queries has increased,” noted Philipp Schindler, svp and chief business officer. Q1, he said, “marked our largest expansion to date for AI overviews, both in terms of launching to new users and providing responses for more questions.”
At its last quarterly earnings call in February, the company said it expected to incur around $75 billion in capital expenditures this year as AI demands grow.
Some of the company’s investments in AI are designed to serve advertisers and bolster Google’s massive ads business. Specifically, Schindler pointed to the company’s tests of ads in AI Overviews, the recent launch of new asset and audience recommendations within Audience Insights, and advancements in Performance Max, Google’s AI-driven campaign offering.
Google Shares swelled more than 6% in after-market trading.
Economic uncertainty spurred by President Trump’s tariff yo-yoing has sent markets on a wild ride of ups and downs this month. This week, stocks are largely surging on optimism that Trump will continue to soften his tariff posture, with S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq all popping.
Despite the broader market rally, Google’s stock has sunk about 15% year-to-date.
In the background, Google is battling two damning antitrust rulings. This week, it kicked off a remedy hearing with the U.S. Justice Department after a federal judge determined last year that the tech giant operates an illegal monopoly in the online search market. And just last week, a court ruled that Google’s adtech business also violates U.S. competition law.
The key quote
“More businesses, big and small, are adopting AI-powered campaigns, and the deployment of AI across our ads business is driving results for our customers and for our business,” said Schindler. “Throughout 2024, we launched several features that leverage LLMs to enhance advertiser value, and we’re seeing this work pay off. The combination of these launches now allows us to match ads to more relevant search queries, and this helps advertisers reach customers and searches where we would not previously have shown their ads.”
