Want to send thoughts or suggestions to\u00a0Fortune Tech?\u00a0Drop a line\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Google Cloud revenue is now 18% of Alphabet’s business Stuart Isett for Fortune<\/p>\n Ever since Google was founded in 1998, search has been the core of the company\u2019s identity. For much of that time, search has also been the engine (no pun intended) driving Google\u2019s business.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Wednesday, that began to change<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company\u2019s cloud computing business was the undisputed star of parent company Alphabet\u2019s first-quarter earnings<\/a>, posting an eye-popping 63% revenue growth from the prior year, for a total of $20 billion.<\/p>\n AI is of course what\u2019s driving the booming growth in the Google Cloud business, as CEO Sundar Pichai and other company executives noted on the earnings call. And investors were delighted, sending shares of Alphabet up 7% in after-hours trading.<\/p>\n But lost in the excitement of the moment is something more fundamental: Google Cloud now represents 18% of the company\u2019s overall business. It\u2019s perhaps just one quarter or two more quarters away from comprising one-fifth of the Google empire\u2014something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, and no longer just a cute sideshow to Google\u2019s ad revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n The main factor that will determine how big the Cloud business becomes is AI. Right now, customer demand for AI is insatiable and Google\u2019s cloud business is rising along with it. If the AI train suddenly comes to a halt, or even slows, Google\u2019s cloud business could find itself back in second class. \u2014Alexei Oreskovic<\/p>\n Meta boosts its 2026 capex forecast, investors flinch<\/p>\n Meta Platforms is splashing some serious cash on AI infrastructure, and investors aren\u2019t pleased.<\/p>\n The company reported first quarter 2026 earnings results on Wednesday<\/a> and raised its full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $125 billion to $145 billion, up from a previous range of $115 billion to $135 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meta told investors the boost was the result of higher prices for components and \u201cadditional data center costs to support future-year capacity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, Meta spent $72.2 billion on capex, up roughly $30 billion from the year before. The company is now guiding to nearly double what it spent in 2025, and more than it spent in 2025 and 2024 combined.<\/p>\n In after-hours trading, the stock tumbled more than 6%.<\/p>\n CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked during an analyst call<\/a> to explain any signposts or key factors he is watching to ensure Meta is \u201con the right path\u201d to generating a healthy return on the investment.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a very technical question,\u201d Zuckerberg responded. \u201cThe things that we\u2019re watching are to make sure that we\u2019re on track to building leading models and leading products. The formula for our company has always been to build experiences that can get to billions of people and focus on monetizing them once you get to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI\u2019m quite comfortable that the lab we\u2019re building is on track to be a leading lab in the world.\u201d \u2014Amanda Gerut<\/p>\n AWS CEO sees huge opportunity in AI-powered software<\/p>\n AWS chief executive Matt Garman isn\u2019t losing any sleep over talk of the \u201cSaaSpocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, he\u2019s so confident companies will continue to buy software-as-a-service in the age of AI that he\u2019s pushing Amazon Web Services into the SaaS business, and rolling out various products aimed directly at office workers and other professionals.<\/p>\n On Tuesday AWS unveiled Amazon Quick, a desktop application that lets users interact with an AI chatbot to handle personal productivity tasks like creating work presentations and arranging meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company also announced a trio of new Connect applications to help workers with tasks in specialized fields such as hiring, health care, and supply-chain management.<\/p>\n For the world\u2019s leading cloud computing provider, whose core business involves helping companies like Netflix, Adidas, and Pfizer run their websites and operations online, selling software for individual workers is quite a change of pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview with Fortune on Tuesday<\/a>, Garman described it as a \u201chuge business opportunity\u201d for AWS and said the advent of agentic AI is what prompted the company to dive in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see that so many applications are getting done with AI and agents,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we think that there is just such a massive change out there that everything is going to be remade.\u201d \u2014AO<\/p>\n More tech<\/p>\n \u2014Musk v. Altman:<\/a> Elon Musk testifies he was a \u201cfool\u201d for financing OpenAI.<\/p>\n \u2014Anthropic mulls fundraising<\/a> at a reported $900 billion valuation.<\/p>\n \u2014Microsoft Xbox sales slump.<\/a> Hardware down 33% from last year, content and services down 5%.<\/p>\n \u2014Amazon\u2019s Q1 cloud sales rose 28% to $37.6 billion<\/a>, handily beating analyst estimates.<\/p>\n \u2014SoftBank may launch an AI robotics company in the U.S.<\/a> Called Roze, it will reportedly build data centers.<\/p>\n \u2014Qualcomm shares jump 12%<\/a> after it said a leading hyperscaler would use its chips later this year.<\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/54972784539_c514f530c1_6k.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at Fortune Brainstorm AI 2025<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n