Alphabet stock jumps 4% after company posts strong earnings results, boosts AI spend

Alphabet stock jumped 4% on Thursday after the company reported third-quarter financial results that beat across the board and increased its capital expenditures for the year.

The Google parent company bumped its spending expectations on artificial intelligence infrastructure to between $91 billion and $93 billion from $85 billion in the prior quarter, noting continued strong cloud demand.

CEO Sundar Pichai said the company had a $155 billion backlog for Google Cloud at the end of the quarter.

“Looking out to 2026, we expect a significant increase in capex,” Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told investors on the earnings call Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank analysts in a note emphasized a lack of negative results throughout the report, saying there was “virtually no hair on the print.” They wrote that the setup coming into the report was not easy, with the stock up 43% since Alphabet issued second-quarter earnings.

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Alphabet reported third-quarter earnings of $3.10 per share adjusted, on revenue of $102.35 billion, its first quarter ever with revenue above the $100 billion benchmark.

Analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of $2.33 per share with revenue of $99.89 billion.

The strong quarter and a boost in capital spending impressed analysts and solidified Alphabet’s position as an AI leader.

“We continue to see multiple fronts where Alphabet has climbed a steep wall of worry in the past 12 months around the AI theme and don’t see any reasons to suspect a pause or step back in terms of its operating proof points to change investor perception,” Goldman Sachs said in a note.

Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $330 from $288.

Analysts were also watching for signs of how AI is affecting search, an area the company dominates.

Google’s search arm posted $56.56 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 15% over a year ago.

“The AI search transition has been viewed as the greatest risk to Google, but additional signs that AI search is more opportunity than threat will continue to flip the narrative,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.

The analysts raised their price target on the company to $340 from $300.

— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this story.