Google Triumphs with AI: Alphabet Reports Record Quarter

Alphabet Reports Impressive Financial Results

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced a record revenue of $109.9 billion for the first quarter of 2026, marking a 22% increase compared to the previous year. This result exceeds analysts' expectations, who had forecasted $107 billion. Earnings per share also surpassed predictions, reaching $5.11, which is 91% above the consensus. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, described this start to the year as a "terrific start," highlighting the company's exceptional performance.

The Google Search engine remains a crucial pillar, generating $60.4 billion in revenue, a 19% increase. This marks the eleventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for Alphabet. The number of queries on Google Search has never been higher, contradicting predictions that AI would render keyword search obsolete.

Meanwhile, Google Cloud experienced spectacular growth of 63%, reaching $20 billion. Its order book nearly doubled in one quarter, surpassing $460 billion. Alphabet's operating margin also improved, rising to 36.1%, up from 33.9% the previous year.

AI as an Asset for Google

Contrary to predictions of decline in the face of the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google has managed to leverage artificial intelligence to strengthen its position. The AI Overviews and AI Mode features, integrated into the search engine, played a key role in the increase in queries. Gemini, one of Google's AI technologies, now processes over 16 billion tokens per minute via its API, a 60% increase compared to the previous quarter.

AI Overviews, which provides AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, has seen its usage double in the United States, rising from 6.49% to 13.14% of queries in just two months. This innovation has allowed Google to keep users on its platform for longer.

A Unique French Market

In France, AI Overviews is not yet available due to disputes over neighboring rights for the press. Despite this, Google continues to dominate the French market, with 86.81% market share across all platforms and 94% on mobile in March 2026. AI alternatives account for only 2% of the global query volume, leaving little choice for French web publishers and advertisers, who must continue to optimize for Google.

Although the European DMA requires Google to offer a choice of search engine screen on Android, the habits of the 67 million French internet users remain unchanged. The only downside for Alphabet is that its desktop market share has dropped to 79.1%, a historically low level. However, this decline is offset by the increase in mobile queries, which now represent the majority of traffic.