Google ad revenue at $61.66 billion in March quarter; revenue from YouTube ads hits $8 billion
Alphabet said it is consolidating teams that focus on building artificial intelligence (AI) models across Google Research and Google DeepMind to further accelerate Alphabet's progress in AI.
Alphabet Inc. announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. The company delivered revenues of $80.5 billion and operating margin expansion. Alphabet’s revenue increased 15% from $69.79 billion a year earlier, the fastest rate of growth since early 2022. Google reported total ad sales of $61.66 billion — up from $54.55 billion a year ago. YouTube advertising revenue stood at $8.09 billion. The company's sales and marketing expenses for the quarter was $6.43 billion, a marginal decrease from the $6.54 billion in the same quarter last year.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, said: “Our results in the first quarter reflect strong performance from Search, YouTube and Cloud. We are well under way with our Gemini era and there’s great momentum across the company. Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure, and our global product footprint, position us well for the next wave of AI innovation.”
Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer; CFO said: “Our strong financial results for the first quarter reflect revenue strength across the company and ongoing efforts to durably reengineer our cost base."
The company said it is consolidating teams that focus on building artificial intelligence (AI) models across Google Research and Google DeepMind to further accelerate Alphabet's progress in AI. AI model development teams previously under Google Research in the Google Services segment will be included as part of Google DeepMind, reported within Alphabet-level activities, prospectively beginning in the second quarter of 2024.
Compensation expenses included employee severance and related charges for the three months ended March 31, 2024 of $716 million, a $1.3 billion decrease in severance and related charges as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2023. For the first quarter of 2024, these charges are included within cost of revenues, research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses in the amounts of $153 million, $247 million, $217 million, and $99 million, respectively.
