Alphabet Says AI Investments Are Driving Growth in Google Search Queries
Google's parent company Alphabet reported 25 percent revenue growth to $127.6 billion in its third quarter. CEO Sundar Pichai said the year-over-year growth rate of search queries is the highest in five years.
Alphabet, the US technology group that owns the Google search engine, released its financial results for the third quarter of 2026 on Wednesday. The company said its investments in artificial intelligence are boosting the number of search queries, suggesting AI products have not so far reduced interest in Google Search.
Chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement that AI investments are driving overall search query growth, including commercial queries. According to him, the year-over-year growth rate of queries is the highest it has been in the last five years.
Financial results
Alphabet's consolidated revenue for the quarter reached $127.6 billion, up 25 percent from a year earlier. Revenue from Google Search and related services rose 12 percent. Google Cloud, the company's cloud computing unit, grew its revenue by 103 percent to $30.7 billion.
The company also reported that YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscribers worldwide have passed 150 million. The figure includes users on trial periods.
Events of the quarter
It was a busy quarter for Google. The company announced its Gemini 4 Argon model, which became widely available this month, and Gemini passed one billion monthly users. The first five Googlebook laptops were revealed, the Google TV Streamer got a price increase, and NotebookLM was renamed Gemini Notebook. Google also launched the Pixel 11 smartphone line and a new Pixel Watch, and is preparing the Pixel Tag device.
The quarter also brought a major reshuffle of the company's AI leadership, in which former DeepMind head Demis Hassabis moved into a chair role.
