Google: the business angle

Ever since Google was founded in 1998, search has been the core of the company’s identity. Google has emerged this Friday as one of the stories drawing attention in South Korea.

Key facts

• Ever since Google was founded in 1998, search has been the core of the company’s identity.
• Search and advertising have been central to Google’s identity and business from day one.
• For much of that time, search has also been the engine (no pun intended) driving Google’s business.
• But lost in the excitement of the moment is something more fundamental: Google Cloud now represents 18% of the company’s overall business.
• At this time last year, Google Cloud represented 13.6% of Alphabet’s total revenue.

What we know

Going deeper, Search and advertising have been central to Google’s identity and business from day one.

On the substance, For much of that time, search has also been the engine (no pun intended) driving Google’s business.

Beyond the headlines, But lost in the excitement of the moment is something more fundamental: Google Cloud now represents 18% of the company’s overall business.

More precisely, At this time last year, Google Cloud represented 13.6% of Alphabet’s total revenue.

It is worth noting that In addition to the revenue growth, Google Cloud’s operating income tripled from the year-ago period to $6.6 billion.

By the numbers

At this stage, Right now, customer demand for AI is insatiable (Google Cloud’s current backlog is $460 billion) and Google’s cloud business is rising along with it.

On a related note, Read Sundar Pichai’s remarks during the Alphabet earnings call for Q1 2026.

Going deeper, Editor’s note: On today’s Q1 2026 earnings call, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai recapped a terrific start to the year, with our AI investments and full-stack approach lighting up every part of the business.

On the substance, Overall the number of paid subscriptions has now reached 350 million, with YouTube and Google One being the key drivers.

The wider context

On a related note, And the Pixel 10a launched to positive reviews, providing the best of Google’s AI features like Gemini Live and AI-powered camera features.

Going deeper, this momentum is leading to accelerating usage of our models.Over the past twelve months, 330 Google Cloud customers each processed over 1 trillion tokens.

On the substance, AI is of course what’s driving the booming growth in Google’s cloud business, as CEO Sundar Pichai and other company executives noted on the earnings call.

Beyond the headlines, It’s perhaps just one quarter or two more quarters away from making up one-fifth of the Google empire—something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

More precisely, Advertising has always been the center of gravity for Google, with its high-margin and recession-proof search ads at the top of a mountain that includes YouTube video ads, display ads that Google distributes to other sites, and ads that appear in Google’s portfolio of popular properties like Gmail and Maps.

The bottom line

• This momentum is leading to accelerating usage of our models.Over the past twelve months, 330 Google Cloud customers each processed over 1 trillion tokens.
• It’s not that Google’s ads business is in any danger of going away.
• And many Google watchers believe that AI will only enhance the company’s capacity to serve ads to searchers.
• Searches spiking right now: 8세대 TPU 내놓으며 96만 대 GPU 주문한 구글··· 배경엔 ‘인프라 이원화’ 전략, "여보, 우린 구글 없어? 옆 집은 퇴사한대"… 시총 1위 턱 밑 구글, 벼락거지 된 개미들 '오열' [불금의 서학개미], 구글, 22년 만에 '최고의 4월'...AI 수익 입증으로 주가 34% 급등, "AI 이긴 유일한 인류" 10년만에 재회…구글, 韓과 전방위 협력(종합).