Alphabet to report earnings: AI, ad momentum key to the fourth quarter

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Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, attends the inauguration of a new hub in France dedicated to the artificial intelligence sector, at the Google France headquarters in Paris, France, on Feb. 15, 2024.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

Alphabet is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday after the bell.

Here’s what analysts polled by LSEG are expecting:

  • Earnings per share: $2.63
  • Revenue: $111.43 billion

Wall Street is also watching several other numbers in the report. Here is what analysts polled by StreetAccount are expecting:

  • Google Cloud: $16.18 billion
  • YouTube advertising: $11.84 billion
  • Traffic acquisition costs: $16.20 billion

Alphabet’s latest earnings results will test how far the company can rally Wall Street’s favor.

As one of the Street’s top performers of 2025, Alphabet’s stock has risen more than 70% in the past six months. Last month, Google became the fourth member of the $4 trillion club, joining Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple as the other companies that have achieved that milestone.

Wall Street will be looking for more details on the recently announced deal for Google to revamp Apple’s AI features, including the Siri virtual assistant, with the search company’s Gemini artificial intelligence models. The deal is one of the most prominent yet for Gemini as the scale of Apple’s user base boasts 2.5 billion active devices.

During the fourth quarter, Google made a number of notable announcements.

In November, the company launched its Gemini 3 models to strong reviews. Google also rolled out the seventh generation of its tensor processing units, called Ironwood. And Alphabet’s driverless car unit Waymo also began opening its robotaxi routes to freeways in three major U.S. cities, marking a major milestone for the ride-hailing company.

Amin Vahdat, Google’s AI infrastructure boss, told employees that the company has to double its serving capacity every six months in order to meet demand for AI services, CNBC reported in November.

“The competition in AI infrastructure is the most critical and also the most expensive part of the AI race,” Vahdat said.

In December, Alphabet agreed to acquire data center company Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash and the assumption of debt.

Since the start of the year, Alphabet has made more AI announcements, besides the deal with Apple. The earnings Wednesday will be Alphabet’s first opportunity to touch on the announcements with investors.

In January, the company launched an AI feature called “Personal Intelligence,” which connects information from apps like Gmail and Google Photos to provide users personalized answers in the Gemini chatbot. Google also announced a protocol for AI shopping agents called Universal Commerce Protocol as the company tries to secure its position in AI-powered commerce, which has emerged as one of the major battlegrounds within consumer and business-facing AI.

As part of a licensing agreement, Google DeepMind brought on the CEO and several of the top engineers at AI voice startup Hume AI, which it reportedly plans to use to improve Gemini’s voice features.

Additionally, Google filed to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that the company held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search. The appeal could result in a delay of remedies against the company while the legal process continues to play out.

In January, Waymo began operating its service in Miami.

Earlier this week, Waymo said it raised a $16 billion funding round that values the company at $126 billion. The company ended 2025 having served 15 million trips in five major U.S. markets, including Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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