Alphabet reports 24% revenue growth as Gemini reaches 950 million monthly users

Alphabet posts 24% revenue growth on AI strength

Alphabet reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $119.8 billion, up 24% year over year, beating analyst expectations, according to coverage of the company's earnings call. CEO Sundar Pichai credited booming AI tools and a surge in YouTube traffic driven by the World Cup for the results. The quarter underscored how AI is driving growth at Google even as the company ramps up spending on the infrastructure needed to sustain that growth.

Gemini app reaches 950 million monthly users

Google disclosed that its Gemini app now has 950 million monthly active users, a sizeable jump from the 750 million figure reported in February. The milestone puts Gemini within striking distance of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which reached one billion monthly active users in June. The user growth figure was shared as part of Alphabet's Q2 2026 earnings release.

Cloud business nearly doubles on enterprise AI demand

Alphabet's cloud segment posted revenue growth close to a doubling year over year, reflecting strong enterprise adoption of Google's AI services and infrastructure. Pichai pointed to AI products and YouTube as the main growth engines during the quarter, framing the cloud result as evidence that external demand for Google's AI stack is translating into large, recurring revenue.

AI infrastructure spending pressures margins

Analysis of the earnings call highlighted a familiar trade-off facing Google: AI is fueling both top-line growth and a sharp rise in capital expenditure. The company is pouring resources into data centers, custom chips, and model training to keep pace with rivals, with those costs beginning to weigh on operating margins even as revenue accelerates.

Gemini developer ecosystem expands beyond Alphabet's walls

Outside of Alphabet's earnings, the broader Gemini ecosystem continues to grow. A new release of the usecix developer package (version 1.0.23) added a Model Context Protocol layer that works with Gemini alongside Claude and Codex, reflecting the integration of Google's models into third-party coding, indexing, and agent tooling.