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Google says its investments in AI are driving more searches

AIOctober 29, 20261 min read

Google's parent company, Alphabet, says its AI tools are bringing more people to Google Search. This news came with its Q3 2026 earnings report.

Search is growing fast

Alphabet says its AI investments are helping drive more Search queries, which means more questions typed into Google. CEO Sundar Pichai says the year-over-year growth in queries is the highest it has been in five years. This includes commercial queries, which are searches linked to buying things.

Key numbers from the quarter

Total Alphabet revenue: $127.6 billion, up 25% from a year earlier.
Google Search & other revenue: up 12% from a year earlier.
Google Cloud revenue: up 103% from a year earlier, to $30.7 billion.
YouTube Music and Premium: passed 150 million subscribers worldwide. This number includes free trials.

A busy quarter for Google

The earnings report came after a packed few months. Google released its Gemini 4 Argon AI model widely this month. Its Gemini app passed 1 billion monthly users. Google also showed its first five Googlebook laptops, raised the price of the Google TV Streamer, and renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. It launched the Pixel 11 phones and a new Pixel Watch, and it plans to release the Pixel Tag. Its top AI leadership also changed, and former DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis took a chair role.

Why this matters

Search is the main way Google makes money. If AI makes people search more, Google can keep its core business strong while it competes in AI. The fast growth in Google Cloud also shows that businesses are spending heavily on Google's computing services.

What to watch

Whether Search growth stays high as AI tools improve.
How many YouTube Music and Premium subscribers are paying, not just on trial.
Sales of the new Googlebook laptops and Pixel 11 phones.
How Google's new AI leadership shapes its next products.

Glossary

Alphabet: The parent company that owns Google and other businesses.
Gemini: Google's AI system, used in chat and many Google products.
Google Cloud: Google's business that rents computing power and software to other companies.
NotebookLM: A Google tool that helps people work with and understand their own documents, now renamed Gemini Notebook.
DeepMind: Google's AI research lab, known for building advanced AI systems.
Pixel: Google's line of smartphones, plus related gadgets like the Pixel Watch.

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