**Google Surpasses Earnings Expectations Amid Cloud and AI Growth**

Google has reported strong financial results, surpassing market expectations for the quarter. The company's earnings per share hit $1.83 on revenue of $86.44 billion, according to data from Bloomberg. Advertising revenue reached $65.85 billion, exceeding analysts' projections of $65.5 billion and marking a significant increase from $59.65 billion the previous year.

In an earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the notable growth of the company's cloud unit. The cloud division generated $11.4 billion in revenue, a 35% increase from the corresponding period last year. Pichai attributed this success to the company's expanding AI portfolio, which is attracting new customers and facilitating larger deals. "This business has real momentum, and the overall opportunity is increasing as customers embrace generative AI," Pichai remarked.

Google's cloud growth comes amid similar expansion efforts from rivals Microsoft and Amazon, who are also enhancing their AI infrastructure. Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi revealed that the company plans to invest approximately $13 billion in capital expenditures for the current quarter. Additionally, there is an anticipation of further increases in AI and data infrastructure spending in 2025.

The tech giant is also facing competition in the realm of AI-powered chatbots, with Meta developing its own search engine to support its Meta AI chatbot. This new tool aims to provide users with conversational answers to their queries and prompts. The competitive landscape in AI-driven search technology remains a critical area for Google.

Pichai highlighted the user experience enhancements brought by AI search tools, particularly with the AI Overviews feature that offers concise answers to user queries. This feature now serves 1 billion users monthly. "People are asking longer and more complex questions and exploring a wider range of websites," Pichai noted. "What's particularly exciting is that this growth actually increases over time as people learn that Google can answer more of their questions." Similar to traditional search results, advertisements accompany AI Overviews, contributing to Google's revenue.

Google is the first major tech platform to release quarterly results this week, with Meta and Microsoft set to do so on Wednesday, followed by Amazon and Apple. While all these giant companies have enjoyed share price gains this year, investor focus has shifted to evaluating their AI investments and business successes individually rather than in unison.