San Francisco, United States – Google parent Alphabet and computing colossus Microsoft Tuesday reported that quarterly profits climbed on demand for cloud computing enhanced with artificial intelligence.
“Google Cloud missed consensus revenue expectations on slowing growth, and we believe consistent with the view that newer workloads will take time to move the needle,” Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian said in a note to investors. Microsoft was quick to beef up its Bing search engine with AI powers, but Google’s search has yet to see a real threat to its dominance, and continues to hold about 90 percent of the market worldwide.
“Cloud computing is a much lumpier business than advertising, and one where Google is facing stiff competition.” The company exceeded expectations to report a net income of $22.3 billion for the July to September period, up 27 percent from a year ago.