Alphabet earnings: Shares gain on revenue beat from Google search

Google parent Alphabet Inc. reported second-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ expectations, boosted by advertising on the company’s flagship search business, which is withstanding new competition from artificial intelligence chatbots.

Alphabet’s sales, excluding partner payouts, were $62 billion in the quarter, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Analysts had projected $60.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Search advertising performed well, generating $42.6 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $42.2 billion.

Shares gained more than 7% in late trading.

Google’s flagship search business has weathered an advertising slowdown that affected social media companies, such as Meta and Snap, more severely in recent quarters. The company’s search product also continues to dominate despite new competitive threats from Microsoft and OpenAI, which provides an alternative called ChatGPT that answers users’ questions with conversational responses powered by generative AI. Google’s chatbot, Bard, isn’t yet as widely used.