On Wednesday, that began to change.
But lost in the excitement of the moment is something more fundamental: Google Cloud now represents 18% of the company’s overall business. It’s perhaps just one quarter or two more quarters away from comprising one-fifth of the Google empire—something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
At this time last year, Google Cloud represented 13.6% percent of Alphabet’s total revenue. In the first quarter of 2024, Cloud was just 11.8%.
But the cloud business has reached an inflection point where it’s no longer just a cute sideshow. In addition to the revenue growth, Google’s cloud’s operating income tripled from the year-ago period to $6.6 billion. More impressive still, the cloud business operating margin expanded from 9.4% a year ago to 32.9% in Q1.
Of course, the main factor that will determine how big the Cloud business becomes is AI. Right now, customer demand for AI is insatiable (Google Cloud’s current backlog is $460 billion) and Google’s cloud business is rising along with it. If the AI train suddenly comes to a halt, or even slows—which many observers think could happen—Google’s cloud business could find itself back in second class.
