Alphabet reported strong first-quarter results for 2025, with YouTube’s advertising revenue leading the charge as the company beat Wall Street expectations.
Total revenue for Alphabet rose to $90.2 billion in the first quarter, a year-over-year increase of 12 percent. The company’s strong showing exceeded analyst forecasts, which had projected earnings of $2.01 per share.
YouTube was a key contributor to the upside. The video platform generated $8.93 billion in advertising revenue during Q1, representing a 10 percent increase compared with the first quarter of 2024.
Alphabet’s Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat noted the growth was “driven by strength in both brand and direct response advertising,” and added that the company is continuing to invest in artificial intelligence tools to improve the relevance and performance of YouTube’s ad offerings.
The performance of YouTube stands in sharp contrast to the more modest or negative ad revenue growth reported by several linear networks and broadcasters in recent quarters. While many traditional players are still grappling with scatter market volatility and erosion in legacy ad formats, YouTube continues to benefit from its global reach, massive scale, and increasingly mature monetization tools.
Google advertising as a whole brought in $61.66 billion for the quarter, up from $54.55 billion a year earlier. This includes search, YouTube, and Google Network ads. Meanwhile, Google Cloud contributed $9.57 billion in revenue, a 28 percent increase, and reported operating income of $900 million—up from a $191 million loss in the same quarter last year.
The quarter also marked a significant moment for Alphabet’s capital return strategy. The company declared its first-ever dividend of 20 cents per share, payable on June 17, and authorized a new $70 billion stock repurchase program. These steps were seen as signs of Alphabet’s growing confidence in its long-term cash flow and financial stability.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, emphasized the role of artificial intelligence across the company’s products and platforms, including YouTube. “We are well underway with our Gemini era and there’s great momentum across the company. Our leadership in AI research and infrastructure is driving innovation across our products and services,” Pichai said.
While Alphabet’s advertising and AI efforts remain the core of its business, subscription revenue from services like YouTube Premium and YouTube TV also continues to grow, helping to diversify revenue streams beyond pure advertising.
