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After Google fended off major changes to its lucrative search business in September, it has been free to return to business as usual, and business has been good. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported $102.35 billion in sales for the third quarter, up 16 percent from a year earlier, as people continued to take queries to Google Search despite the rise of alternatives like ChatGPT and Perplexity. The company posted a profit of just under $35 billion, a $21 billion increase from three years ago when the artificial intelligence race began. The results exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for sales of $99.81 billion and a profit of $27.63 billion. Alphabet shares rose more than 6 percent in after-hours trading. The results show that the tech giant continues to dominate the online search business, which a judge found to be a monopoly early this year. But Judge Amit P. Mehta, who made that ruling, decided in September that Google didn’t need to make major changes to address its search monopoly because rapid advances in A.I. are shaking up the way people search for information. Judge Mehta’s decision removed a cloud that had hovered over Google’s business since 2020. The company was allowed to keep paying Apple to be the search engine that automatically comes up when someone opens an iPhone browser, a deal that helps Google make billions of dollars in advertising sales. Sales from Google Search increased nearly 15 percent to $56.57 billion in the quarter. “The search business isn’t in jeopardy like many people thought, because they’re still a place where product searches start,” said Ben Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, a tech research firm. At the same time, he said, the growth in artificial intelligence is driving the company’s cloud-computing business. “They’re diversified, so they’re making money on A.I. in lots of ways.” Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
