Google Cloud’s Surge

Google may have calmed some nerves on Wall Street on Tuesday. It delivered a third-quarter result showing a sharp acceleration in Google Cloud’s growth rate, to a bumper 35%, from 29% in the second quarter. CEO Sundar Pichai credited that performance in part to the company’s AI portfolio, which he said was helping it win new customers as well as lift usage by existing customers. Pichai didn’t quantify the impact of AI, however, which likely would help convince skeptics on Wall Street. 

Still, the cloud unit’s performance helped increase Google parent Alphabet’s overall top-line growth rate to 15%, a little higher than analysts were projecting. That underwrote a 5% lift in Alphabet’s out-of-favor stock in after-hours trading.