Alphabet delivered a very strong Q4 and closed 2025 with several structurally important signals for the ads and AI ecosystem.
Annual revenue passed $400B for the first time, with FY revenue up 15% YoY and Q4 revenue up 18% YoY. Operating income also continued to scale, reaching $129.0B for FY 2025 (+15% YoY) while keeping operating margins broadly stable around 32%.
From a growth engine perspective:
Search still grows at scale (+17% YoY), confirming that core query-based monetisation is not being displaced yet.
YouTube generated more than $60B from ads and subscriptions in 2025, reinforcing its position as a full-funnel media channel, not just a branding platform.
Google Cloud is now the fastest-growing major segment: Q4 revenue grew +48% YoY to a $70B+ annualised run-rate, and more importantly operating margin jumped to 30.1%, up from 17.5% a year ago.
On the AI side, scale is already massive:
The Gemini app has 750M+ monthly active users and Google processes 10B+ tokens per minute across its first-party models, including direct API usage.
The strategic signal for marketers and platforms is also in the investment numbers:
Capex nearly doubled YoY in Q4 (+95%), reaching $27.9B, clearly pointing to sustained infrastructure and AI model investment rather than short-term cost optimisation.
Short version:
Google is simultaneously scaling its core ads business, rapidly improving cloud profitability, and massively increasing AI infrastructure spend without sacrificing operating discipline
