Google Cloud began 2025 strong, posting a year-over-year 28% increase in revenue in the first quarter to $12.3 billion. As Alphabet’s total revenue rose 12% to $90.2 billion, falling just short of the prior quarter’s $96.5 billion, the cloud division continued to carry its weight—both in earnings and scope.
The growth came with a sharp improvement in operating margins, rising to 17.8% from just 9.4% a year earlier. This leap reflects the company’s deepening investment in its AI infrastructure strategy.
CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized Google’s AI-forward momentum, pointing to the release of Gemini 2.5, the company’s most advanced model to date. He also cited the expansion of Google’s hardware stack, from next-gen Vera Rubin GPUs to its new seventh-generation TPU, Ironwood.
The cloud operation now benefits from a global backbone that includes over two million miles of fiber and 33 subsea cables. Pichai highlighted this as a key differentiator in today’s fierce AI infrastructure rac
Capital expenditures for the quarter hit $17.2 billion, with most of it funneled into the cloud business—primarily for servers and data centers. CFO Anat Ashkenazi noted that Google expects a total of $75 billion in capex for the year, though deployment timing may create quarter-to-quarter fluctuations.
In the face of macroeconomic challenges, including possible implications from U.S. tariff policies, Google stands out as the sole Big Three cloud provider that is not currently under scrutiny for data center pullouts. In contrast, both Microsoft and Amazon have weathered rumors of axed leases.
However, not every cloud is silver-lined. Google still has its antitrust struggles in the US, with lawsuits from the Justice Department potentially rearranging its search and advertising activities. Stories even indicate OpenAI may be seeking fragments of Google’s empire in the event of regulators calling for a breakup.
However, the market too reacted positively. Alphabet stock increased by 4% following the earnings call, demonstrating investor faith in Google’s twin playbook: grow AI infrastructure massively while riding through regulatory tempests with clarity of strategy.
