Alphabet (GOOGL) Q4 2025 Earnings Review
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Flying High, but a Little Too Close to the Sun?
By Yimin Xu
1. Company Profile
Alphabet ($GOOGL) reports business segments across Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets.
Google Services - consumer internet + ads ecosystem:
- Ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube
- Monetization via advertising, plus consumer subscriptions
Google Cloud - enterprise cloud + productivity + AI:
- Infrastructure and platform services (GCP), applications and other enterprise services, including Google Workspace
- Monetization via consumption-based fees and subscriptions
Other Bets - a portfolio of smaller, sometimes moonshot, businesses:
- Revenues primarily from autonomous transportation services (Waymo) and internet services
2. Fundamentals Charts
Quarterly Revenue
GOOGL’s Q4 revenue reached $113.8 billion, +18% YoY, an acceleration from 2024.
Google Services generated $95.9 billion in revenue, up 14% YoY. This was an acceleration from Q4 2024’s 10% growth.
- Google Search & other: $63.1B (+17% YoY), driven by broad strength across all major verticals, with retail particularly strong
- YouTube ads: $11.4B (+9% YoY), driven by direct response. But the results were negatively affected from the lapping of the strong spend on U.S. election in Q4’24.
- Google Network: $7.8B (‑2% YoY)
- Subscriptions, platforms, and devices: $13.6B (+17% YoY), supported by strong adoption of YouTube subscriptions (Music & Premium) and Google One, which “benefited from increased demand for AI plans.”
Search vs AI
Interestingly, Google Search saw more usage in Q4 than ever before. Gemini 3 is now integrated into AI Mode and AI Overviews.