$400 Billion, A Historic First
- Alphabet First to Surpass $400 Billion in Annual Revenue in 2025
- Q4 Revenue of $113.8 Billion, Up 18% Year-Over-Year
- Driven by Google Cloud’s Explosive 48% Growth
What Happened?
Alphabet announced its Q4 2025 earnings. Q4 revenue was $113.83 billion, exceeding Wall Street’s estimate of $111.43 billion.[CNBC] Net income surged 30% year-over-year to $34.46 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai described it as a “tremendous quarter.”[9to5Google]
Annual revenue surpassed $400 billion for the first time in the company’s history. This was primarily driven by the rapid growth of AI and cloud businesses.[TheWrap]
Why Does It Matter?
The most notable achievement is Google Cloud’s performance. Revenue was $17.66 billion, significantly exceeding the estimate of $16.18 billion. This represents a 48% year-over-year growth. The cloud contract backlog jumped to $240 billion, more than double what it was a year ago.[FinViz]
Search advertising remained strong. Google Search revenue was $63.07 billion, up 17% from $54.03 billion the previous year. This is evidence that AI features are successfully monetizing without harming the search experience.
YouTube surpassed $60 billion in annual revenue. Q4 advertising revenue grew 9% to $11.38 billion, but fell short of the estimate of $11.84 billion. Nevertheless, the platform as a whole has become a business on par with Netflix.[TheDesk]
What Happens Next?
Alphabet forecasts capital expenditures (CapEx) of $175 billion to $185 billion in 2026. This is more than double that of 2025 at the upper end. These funds will be used to expand AI computing capacity and meet cloud demand. This also includes expanding the research infrastructure of Google DeepMind.
In an environment where AI investment competition is overheating, this level of betting is an expression of the will to seize the market. The question is the speed of return on investment. How this investment is reflected in performance from the second half of 2026 will be key.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What is Google’s exact annual revenue for 2025?
A: Alphabet announced that its annual revenue for 2025 exceeded $400 billion. The exact figure can be found in the official annual report. This is a milestone achieved for the first time since the company’s founding.
Q: Why has Google Cloud grown so rapidly?
A: The main reason is the surge in demand for AI workloads. Companies are investing in cloud infrastructure to train and infer their own AI models. Alphabet’s AI chips and infrastructure are proving to be competitive.
Q: Why is the 2026 investment scale double that of 2025?
A: Building AI computing infrastructure costs astronomical amounts. GPUs, data centers, and power infrastructure all require large-scale upfront investment. As demand from cloud customers has surged, securing capacity has become urgent.
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References
- Alphabet (GOOGL) Q4 2025 earnings – CNBC (2026-02-04)
- Alphabet reports Q4 2025 revenue of $113.8 billion – 9to5Google (2026-02-04)
- Alphabet Q4 Highlights: Google Cloud Revenue Up 48% – FinViz (2026-02-04)
- YouTube ad revenue grows to $11.4 billion during Q4 – TheDesk (2026-02-04)