Alphabet shares were rising in late trading Tuesday after the search giant helped kick off Big Tech earnings on a positive note.
The company reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter and said its finance chief would become chief investment officer in September.
The company reported earnings of $1.44 a share compared to analyst expectations of $1.34 a share.
The firm said Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat would assume the newly created role of chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google. Porat will also serve as finance chief while the firm looks for a full-time replacement. The company said Porat will be responsible for the firm’s Other Bets portfolio.
“In her new role, Ruth will strengthen our collaboration with policy makers and shape our corporate investments to have maximum economic impact for people and economies around the world,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in the news release.
Shares were up 6% in late trading after the report.
Revenue of $74.6 billion topped expectations at $72.85 billion, according to FactSet. Revenue in the Google Search & other category rose 4.8% to $42.63 billion, while YouTube ads revenue rose 4.4% to $7.67 billion. Google Network revenue fell 5% to $7.85 billion.
Google Cloud revenue rose 28% to $8.03 billion. The cloud business reported record operating income of $395 million, compared to an operating loss of $590 million in the second quarter of 2022. Porat said in the news release that the results reflect resilience in the Search business, while Search and YouTube also saw an acceleration in revenue growth. She also touted momentum for the cloud business.
“There’s exciting momentum across our products and the company, which drove strong results this quarter,” Pichai said in the release. “Our continued leadership in AI and our excellence in engineering and innovation are driving the next evolution of Search, and improving all our services.”
During the firm’s earnings call, Pichai touted a range of investments in artificial intelligence. Porat said the firm was pleased with the speed of growth in search advertising revenue growth.
Porat said in the cloud business, executives are excited about customer interest in its AI-optimized infrastructure, large langue models, AI platform services, and other new generative AI offerings.
“Although, we are still clearly in the early days,” she said.
She said the firm is focused on “durably re-engineering our cost base.”
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