Google parent company Alphabet is set to report its second-quarter earnings Tuesday after the market closes.
Here’s what analysts are expecting:
- Earnings per share: $1.84, according to LSEG
- Revenue: $84.19 billion, according to LSEG
Wall Street is also watching several other numbers in the report:
- YouTube advertising revenue: $8.93 billion, according to StreetAccount
- Google Cloud revenue: $10.20 billion, according to StreetAccount
- Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $13.54 billion, according to StreetAccount
Analysts will be watching to see if Alphabet, which has outperformed other internet and software mega caps through the year, can keep posting steady growth amid tougher comparisons from the year prior. They expect modest growth in key areas such as cloud and overall revenue, after a quarter of leadership moves, AI announcements and market expansions.
During the second quarter, Alphabet saw a number of expansion updates, including for its self-driving car unit Waymo, which opened its service to all San Francisco users. The move was Waymo’s second citywide rollout, following its 2020 debut in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
In May, Alphabet held its annual developer conference, where it announced a slew of new artificial intelligence products including a new large language model called Gemini 1.5 Flash, which can quickly summarize conversations, caption images and videos and extract data from large documents and tables.
The company also launched AI Overview, which CEO Sundar Pichai called the biggest change in search in 25 years, to a limited audience, allowing users to see a summary of answers to queries at the very top of Google search.
However, the earnings period also brought criticism for some of those new products.
Though Google had been working on AI Overview for more than a year, users quickly noticed that queries were returning nonsensical or inaccurate answers, and they had no way to opt out. Widely circulated results included the false statement that Barack Obama was America’s first Muslim president, a suggestion for users to try putting glue in pizza and a recommendation to try eating at least one rock per day.
Though Google announced several fixes to remedy AI Overview issues, it came as the latest of several AI product launch mishaps by the search giant, which for some have called into question whether the company can safely rollout AI products at the speed of competition. It also remains unclear just how much revenue growth these new products will generate from users and advertisers alike — a key discussion topic expected on Alphabet’s earnings conference call.
Google’s search head Liz Reid told employees at a recent all-hands meeting that the company “won’t always find everything” when it comes to AI mistakes, according to audio obtained by CNBC. Reid urged employees to continue pushing AI products, suggesting they can fix mistakes as users and employees find them.
Alphabet also announced a new finance chief, Anat Ashkenazi, who came from Eli Lily, the world’s most valuable drugmaker. Ashkenazi begins her tenure on July 31, replacing Ruth Porat, who has taken on a new role as Alphabet president and chief investment officer.
Alphabet continued belt-tightening during the quarter, including laying off more than 100 people from several teams in Google’s cloud unit, one of its fastest-growing businesses. The company also laid off at least 200 employees from its “Core” engineering teams moving some roles to India and Mexico, CNBC found.
As belt-tightening and budget reallocations continued through the quarter, company leadership faced employee complaints about “a significant decline in morale,” citing lack of trust, tighter deadlines with fewer resources and diminished opportunities for internal advancement, CNBC found. The complaints have come at a time in which the company is trying to maintain a positive perception as a top employer to work for, while it pursues top tech talent during a competitive AI boom.
Alphabet also faces questions about a potential new deal, which would reportedly be its largest-ever acquisition. Google is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who told CNBC the deal is expected to close “soon.” The acquisition would help bolster Google’s cloud unit revenue and comes shortly after the company reportedly ended talks to potentially acquire marketing software firm HubSpot.
