Alphabet earnings: guidance and what to watch
Alphabet's next results are expected on October 28, 2026. Watch whether rented computing capacity becomes a lasting margin burden.
What has Alphabet guided for 2026?
On July 22, management raised 2026 capital-expenditure guidance to US$195,000 million–US$205,000 million. Capital expenditure, or CapEx, means buying long-lived assets such as servers, networking equipment and data centers. Management said capacity is arriving sooner than expected and signalled another significant increase in 2027.
| period guided | low | high | date it was given | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| full year 2026 CapEx guidance | Year to Dec 2026 | 195,000 | 205,000 | Jul 22, 2026 |
Has Alphabet kept its past promises?
The earlier bargain worked as promised: Alphabet’s return over 2023–2025 was 203.65%, and Pichai earned twice his target on the relevant award. The broader lesson is narrower than “management is against shareholders”: management has substantial money alongside them, but private-subsidiary awards require scrutiny of valuation and the capital used to produce growth.
What have Alphabet's revenue and profit done in the last eight quarters?
Revenue rose from $257,637 million in 2021 to $402,836 million in 2025. Growth slowed sharply after 2021, then recovered in 2024 and 2025. The latest quarters continued that recovery, with year-over-year growth reaching approximately 24% in June 2026.
| Jun 2026 | Mar 2026 | Dec 2025 | Sep 2025 | Jun 2025 | Mar 2025 | Dec 2024 | Sep 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 119,796 | 109,896 | 113,828 | 102,346 | 96,428 | 90,234 | 96,469 | 88,268 |
| Operating income | 40,770 | 39,696 | 35,934 | 31,228 | 31,271 | 30,606 | 30,972 | 28,521 |
| Net income | 112,193 | 62,578 | 34,455 | 34,979 | 28,196 | 34,540 | 26,536 | 26,301 |
| EPS, diluted | 9.12 | 5.12 | 2.82 | 2.87 | 2.31 | 2.81 | 2.15 | 2.12 |
What should I watch in Alphabet's next results?
The next expected results date is October 28, 2026. Management plans greater use of third-party capacity during the third quarter while its own facilities are built. Renting lets Google serve customers sooner, but it pays an outside provider while also paying for new infrastructure.
The trade can work if customers stay with Google and later move onto cheaper company-owned capacity. It becomes troubling if rental costs continue while Alphabet’s own equipment remains underused and depreciation rises. Results should therefore reveal not only Cloud sales, but also the cost of fulfilling them.