Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and several other Silicon Valley giants are having a rough week on Wall Street.
Shares of major tech companies have plunged in recent days as investors grow increasingly concerned about how much money they’re spending on AI and when and if those investments will pay off.
Alphabet, for example, had its worst day ever on the stock market Thursday, with shares plunging more than 12% and wiping roughly $500 billion off the company’s market capitalization.
The dramatic selloff came a day after Alphabet reported disappointing third-quarter earnings. The tech giant reported Wednesday after the market closed that it generated $127.6 billion in revenue, falling short of Wall Street’s expectations.
And while Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement that the company’s AI investments helped drive overall growth in Google Search queries, revenue from its search business increased just 12%, also below expectations.
Alphabet Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler told investors during an earnings call Wednesday that the growing use of Google’s AI Mode was contributing to slower search revenue growth because of “lower monetization.”
The company also reported $9.1 billion in negative free cash flow for the quarter, meaning its capital expenditures exceeded the cash generated by its operations. This marked the second consecutive quarter Alphabet reported negative free cash flow.
On top of all that, Alphabet still plans to spend a whopping $195 billion to $205 billion on capital expenditures this year, much of it going toward AI and the infrastructure needed to power it.
Source link







