# Google
**Google** is the search and advertising business at the center of [Alphabet Inc.](https://www.edgepedia.org/alphabet-inc), the American technology holding company built around the world's dominant general search engine, which also operates YouTube, the Android mobile operating system, the Chrome browser, Google Cloud, and a portfolio of hardware and subscription products. Alphabet reports Google in two segments, Google Services and Google Cloud, with all non-Google businesses collectively as Other Bets.[1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $350.0 billion in FY2024; $402.8 billion in 2025, with Google Search and other at $224.5 billion (55.7%)[2](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html) • [3](https://www.indmoney.com/blog/us-stocks/how-google-makes-money) |
| Search share | 91.31% of worldwide search engine usage as of July 2026 (Statcounter), versus bing at 4.47%[4](https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/worldwide/2025) |
| Ad tech position | DFP publisher ad server above 91% of worldwide open-web display impressions since 2018; AdX exchange 54–65%[5](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508.1183.1_3.pdf) |
| Antitrust | Liable in August 2024 for unlawfully maintaining monopolies in general search services and general search text advertising under Section 2 of the Sherman Act[6](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1421546/dl?inline=) |
| AI scale | AI Overviews above 2 billion monthly users in more than 200 countries; Gemini App above 750 million monthly active users by end of 2025[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf) |
| Capex | Around $180 billion planned for 2026, doubled from $90 billion in 2025 and a 6x increase in four years[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf) |
| Employees | 190,820 as of December 31, 2025, after 183,323 at end-2024 and 182,502 at end-2023[1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm) • [2](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html) |
## What Google is and how it is organized
Alphabet is Google's holding company, and its reporting reflects that split. Google Services holds search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, hardware, and subscriptions; Google Cloud sells infrastructure and AI platforms; Other Bets collects the non-Google ventures, including the Waymo autonomous-driving unit.[1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm) The financial weight is lopsided: in FY2024 Google Services earned $304,930 million (87.1% of the $350,018 million total), Google Cloud $43,229 million (12.3%), and Other Bets $1,648 million (0.5%).[2](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html)
**Other Bets** remain financially small even as their operating milestones grow. Waymo surpassed 20 million fully autonomous trips in December 2025 and plans expansion to new cities across the US, UK, and Japan.[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf)
## How the business works
**Search advertising** is the engine. Advertisers submit maximum cost-per-click bids on keyword phrases, and Google's auction also weighs ad quality, ad format, and search context.[8](https://jlgleason.github.io/assets/pdf/search-ads.pdf) A cited account describes advertisers as charged under a generalized second-price (GSP) auction mechanism, paying the minimum cost required to keep the ad in the position where it was served.[8](https://jlgleason.github.io/assets/pdf/search-ads.pdf) Google states an "Honest Results" policy under which organic results are not ranked based on personal or financial relationships, including advertising.[9](https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/search/howsearchworks/our-approach) In FY2024, Search revenue grew 13.2% to $198.1 billion, driven by paid clicks up 5% and cost-per-click up 7%.[2](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html)
The auction is intermediated. [Digital marketing](https://www.edgepedia.org/digital-marketing) agencies bid in about 75% of Google's sponsored auctions in one study's data, and just seven agency trading desks bid for about 50% of all 6,000 advertisers, or about 40% of 36 million keywords.[10](https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f112403.pdf) An American Economic Review study using nearly 40 million Google keyword auctions clusters keywords into thematic relevant markets with machine learning and estimates a decline in the platform's performance and concentration measure.[11](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?from=j&id=10.1257%2Faer.20190811&journal=1&page=27&per-page=21&q=&within%5Babstract%5D=on&within%5Bauthor%5D=on&within%5BjelCode%5D=M1&within%5Btitle%5D=on)
**Open-web display ad tech** is a second, contested profit pool. Google's DFP publisher ad server has held a share exceeding 91% of worldwide open-web display impressions since 2018, and its AdX exchange an estimated 54–65% of worldwide impressions and 46–56% of US-user impressions; [Google Ads](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-ads) has held above 85% of worldwide impressions in the advertiser ad network market.[5](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508.1183.1_3.pdf) An expert report in the ad tech case describes the strategy as analogous to razor/razor-blade pricing, extracting profits on AdX and Google Ads while pricing DFP near cost.[5](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508.1183.1_3.pdf) The court found the entrenching policies included First Look, which required publishers using DFP to offer AdX a first right of refusal for each impression, along with Last Look and Unified Pricing Rules.[12](https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/united-states-v-google-1134095345)
One economic characterization disputes the common framing of Google as a two-sided market: a 2014 Journal of Competition Law & [Economics](https://www.edgepedia.org/economics) article argues network externalities run only from the number of users to advertisers, not the other way around, and proposes that Google operates as a retailer of users' personal information, buying it in exchange for search services and selling targeted advertising downstream.[13](https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jcomle/v10y2014i1p185-207..html)
**The revenue mix.** In FY2024, Google Search and other earned $198.1 billion (56.6% of revenue), YouTube ads $36.1 billion (10.3%), Google Network $30.4 billion (8.7%), subscriptions, platforms and devices $40.3 billion (11.5%), Google Cloud $43.2 billion (12.4%), and Other Bets $1.6 billion (0.5%).[14](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/alphabets-revenue-breakdown-in-2024/) In 2025 the total reached $402.8 billion: Search and other $224.5 billion (55.7%, up 13.4%), YouTube advertising $40.4 billion (10.0%), Google Cloud $58.7 billion (14.6%, up 35.8%), and subscriptions, platforms and devices $48.0 billion (11.9%).[3](https://www.indmoney.com/blog/us-stocks/how-google-makes-money) Google Cloud earns from consumption-based fees and subscriptions, and its [Vertex AI](https://www.edgepedia.org/vertex-ai) platform offers access to more than 200 foundation models, including the Gemini family.[1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm) Cloud's FY2024 operating income was $6.112 billion, a 14.1% margin, with revenue backlog rising from $74.1 billion to $93.2 billion.[2](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html)
## By the numbers, including peers
**Search share** depends on the denominator and the date. Statcounter puts Google at 91.31% of worldwide search engine usage as of July 2026, with bing at 4.47%, Yahoo! at 1.24%, YANDEX at 1%, [DuckDuckGo](https://www.edgepedia.org/duckduckgo) at 0.65%, and Baidu at 0.5%.[4](https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/worldwide/2025) A 2024 data-journalism chart reported Google's share dropping below 90% for the first time in a decade, even as Search revenue rose 13% to $198.1 billion.[14](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/alphabets-revenue-breakdown-in-2024/) These figures refer to different dates; the Statcounter figure is the direct measurement, while the sub-90% claim is a secondary characterization.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority's final decision in its strategic market status investigation found Google's market power entrenched despite AI-driven change, citing its scale of queries, extensive default positions on almost all UK mobile devices, and a wider ecosystem of browsers and operating systems that gives preferential treatment to its own search service.[15](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68e8b643cf65bd04bad76724/Final%5Fdecision%5F-%5Fstrategic%5Fmarket%5Fstatus%5Finvestigation%5Finto%5FGoogle%5Fs%5Fgeneral%5Fsearch%5Fservices.pdf) The same decision reports Alphabet's 2024 revenue as $350 billion (£273.8 billion), with 76% from online advertising.[15](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68e8b643cf65bd04bad76724/Final%5Fdecision%5F-%5Fstrategic%5Fmarket%5Fstatus%5Finvestigation%5Finto%5FGoogle%5Fs%5Fgeneral%5Fsearch%5Fservices.pdf)
For roughly 2024 it puts Alphabet at about $350 billion total revenue with about $265 billion in advertising, Meta at about $160 billion total (about $155 billion ads), Microsoft at about $245 billion total (about $14 billion search ads), and Amazon at about $620 billion total (about $56 billion ads); on cloud it lists Google at about $43 billion against about $135 billion for Microsoft's Azure-plus and about $105 billion for AWS.[16](https://pitchgrade.com/research/how-google-makes-money) Apple is not covered in that comparison.
**Spending and headcount.** Alphabet delivered its first-ever $100 billion quarter in Q3 2025 and plans around $180 billion of capital expenditure in 2026, doubled from $90 billion in 2025 and a 6x increase in four years, directed at AI-optimized infrastructure including its custom Tensor Processing Units.[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf) Headcount moved slowly after end-2023: 182,502 at end-2023, 183,323 at end-2024 (a net increase of 821, or 0.4%), and 190,820 at end-2025.[2](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html) • [1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm)
## Regulation and antitrust
**The US search case** is the defining legal event. In August 2024, after a bench trial that heard dozens of live witnesses and admitted over 3,500 exhibits, the US District Court for the District of Columbia found Google liable for violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act by unlawfully maintaining its monopolies in the general search services and general search text advertising markets.[6](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1421546/dl?inline=) • [17](https://www.adexchanger.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DOJ-Google-search-antitrust-Judge-Amit_Mehta-ruling.pdf) Judge Amit Mehta's September 2, 2025 remedy ruling barred Google from entering or maintaining exclusive contracts relating to the distribution of [Google Search](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-search), Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app, but declined to order divestiture of Chrome and included no contingent divestiture of Android; Google remains free to make payments to distribution partners for preloading or placement of Search.[18](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/judge-amit-mehta-google-search-monopoly-remedy-ruling.pdf) The final judgment also requires offering qualified competitors a Search Text Ads Syndication License with a five-year term and requires search data sharing with certain competitors; Alphabet appealed in January 2026.[6](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1421546/dl?inline=) • [1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm)
**The US ad tech case** ran on a separate track in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the federal government and seventeen states sued.[19](https://ht.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/united-states-of-america-et-al-v-google-llc-memorandum-opinion-2025.pdf) The court found Google willfully maintained monopoly power in the publisher ad server (DFP) and ad exchange (AdX) markets and unlawfully tied them together.[12](https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/united-states-v-google-1134095345) The Justice Department's proposed final judgment would have required Google to divest AdX, open-source license DFP's Final Auction Logic, potentially divest DFP Remainder, and provide transparency data and APIs.[20](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1414781/dl?inline=) In the September 2, 2026 remedies opinion, the court instead found behavioral remedies sufficient and held that structural remedies such as divesting AdX were neither realistic nor needed.[12](https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/united-states-v-google-1134095345)
**European regulators** have fined Google repeatedly. In September 2025 the European Commission fined Google €2.95 billion for abusive self-preferencing in online advertising technology, a single and continuous infringement of Article 102 TFEU, and ordered it to end its conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain within 60 days.[21](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_25_1992/IP_25_1992_EN.pdf) It later fined Google €890 million for [Digital Markets Act](https://www.edgepedia.org/digital-markets-act) breaches, €460 million for steering users away from often cheaper purchase channels on [Google Play](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-play), and €430 million for self-preferencing on Google Search.[22](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_26_1670/IP_26_1670_EN.pdf) These sit alongside earlier penalties of a record €4.3 billion in 2018, €2.42 billion in 2017, and €1.49 billion in 2019.[23](https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/tech/google-eu-antitrust-fine-adtech) The EU Court of Justice's Grand Chamber ruled on Google's appeal against the Commission's search-related abuse-of-dominance decision in Case C-48/22 P on 10 September 2024.[24](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/6220/oj/eng)
## Recent developments
**AI has moved from experiments into every major product.** Alphabet's 2025 10-K states that all 15 of its half-billion-user products, including seven with two billion users, use its Gemini models.[1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm) [AI Overviews](https://www.edgepedia.org/ai-overviews), introduced in 2024 with a custom Gemini-based model that produces an AI summary at the top of the results page, scaled to over 2 billion monthly users in more than 200 countries in 2025, and the Gemini App reached over 750 million monthly active users by the end of 2025.[18](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/judge-amit-mehta-google-search-monopoly-remedy-ruling.pdf) • [7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf) By Q2 2026, AI Mode had crossed one billion monthly active users, and Google said AI features were increasing overall queries while Search revenue grew 17%.[3](https://www.indmoney.com/blog/us-stocks/how-google-makes-money) On the enterprise side, Alphabet sold more than 8 million paid seats for [Gemini Enterprise](https://www.edgepedia.org/gemini-enterprise) within a few months of launch, and nearly 75% of Google Cloud customers had used its vertically optimized AI as of Q4 2025.[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf)
**Custom silicon** underpins the spending surge. Ironwood, the seventh-generation TPU, delivers a 10x performance improvement over its predecessor, and TPU 8 was announced for later in 2026.[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf)
**Publishers have pushed back.** Google began paying roughly 100 websites for contributions to AI Overviews, but Penske Media, which operates [Variety](https://www.edgepedia.org/variety-magazine) and Rolling Stone, has sued over lost traffic, arguing that tying AI scraping to standard web indexing is unfair. The UK government ordered Google to provide an AI opt-out for publishers that would not penalize them in organic search results, and the European Commission is running an antitrust probe into whether Google fairly compensates publishers for content used in AI answers.[25](https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/09/google-is-paying-100-websites-for-contributions-to-ai-overviews-but-the-amounts-are-tiny/)
## References
1. [Alphabet Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, SEC](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm)
2. [Alphabet FY2024 Annual Report Analysis, 10kvi](https://10kvi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/googl-annual-report-analysis-fy2024.html)
3. [How Google Makes Money: Ads, Cloud, YouTube and AI, INDmoney](https://www.indmoney.com/blog/us-stocks/how-google-makes-money)
4. [Search Engine Market Share Worldwide, Statcounter](https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/worldwide/2025)
5. [Expert economic report in US v. Google (ad tech, E.D. Va.), CourtListener](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508/gov.uscourts.vaed.533508.1183.1_3.pdf)
6. [Final Judgment, U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC (search case), Department of Justice](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1421546/dl?inline=)
7. [Alphabet 2025 Annual Report to Shareholders (founders' letter), SEC](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000344/goog014907-ars.pdf)
8. [Search Engine Revenue from Navigational and Brand Advertising, Gleason](https://jlgleason.github.io/assets/pdf/search-ads.pdf)
9. [Our Approach – How Google Search Works, Google](https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/search/howsearchworks/our-approach)
10. [Buyer power and digital marketing agencies in Google's sponsored search auctions, NBER conference paper](https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f112403.pdf)
11. [From Mad Men to Maths Men: Concentration and Buyer Power in Online Advertising, American Economic Review](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?from=j&id=10.1257%2Faer.20190811&journal=1&page=27&per-page=21&q=&within%5Babstract%5D=on&within%5Bauthor%5D=on&within%5BjelCode%5D=M1&within%5Btitle%5D=on)
12. [United States v. Google LLC, 1:23-cv-108 (E.D. Va. Sep 2, 2026), ad tech remedies opinion, vLex](https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/united-states-v-google-1134095345)
13. [Is The Google Platform A Two-Sided Market?, Journal of Competition Law & Economics](https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jcomle/v10y2014i1p185-207..html)
14. [Charted: Alphabet's Revenue Breakdown in 2024, Visual Capitalist](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/alphabets-revenue-breakdown-in-2024/)
15. [Final decision – strategic market status investigation into Google's general search services, UK CMA](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68e8b643cf65bd04bad76724/Final%5Fdecision%5F-%5Fstrategic%5Fmarket%5Fstatus%5Finvestigation%5Finto%5FGoogle%5Fs%5Fgeneral%5Fsearch%5Fservices.pdf)
16. [How Google Makes Money: Search Advertising, Cloud, and the $300B Revenue Engine, PitchGrade](https://pitchgrade.com/research/how-google-makes-money)
17. [Memorandum Opinion, U.S. v. Google (August 2024 liability ruling), via AdExchanger](https://www.adexchanger.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DOJ-Google-search-antitrust-Judge-Amit_Mehta-ruling.pdf)
18. [Google Search Monopoly Remedy Ruling, Judge Amit Mehta, September 2, 2025, Courthouse News](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/judge-amit-mehta-google-search-monopoly-remedy-ruling.pdf)
19. [Memorandum Opinion, United States of America et al. v. Google LLC (2025), New York Attorney General](https://ht.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/united-states-of-america-et-al-v-google-llc-memorandum-opinion-2025.pdf)
20. [Plaintiffs' Proposed Final Judgment, U.S. v. Google LLC (ad tech), Department of Justice](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1414781/dl?inline=)
21. [Commission fines Google €2.95 billion over abusive practices in online advertising technology, European Commission](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_25_1992/IP_25_1992_EN.pdf)
22. [Commission fines Google €890 million for breaches of the Digital Markets Act, European Commission](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/ip_26_1670/IP_26_1670_EN.pdf)
23. [Trump threatens EU with tariff investigation after Google hit with $3.45 billion antitrust fine, CNN Business](https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/tech/google-eu-antitrust-fine-adtech)
24. [Case C-48/22 P: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 10 September 2024, EUR-Lex](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/6220/oj/eng)
25. [Google's early attempt to pay websites for AI answers is struggling, Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/09/google-is-paying-100-websites-for-contributions-to-ai-overviews-but-the-amounts-are-tiny/)
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*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 20, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 10, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 10, 2026*
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