Alphabet reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday after market close, surpassing Wall Street expectations with strong revenue growth driven by its rapidly expanding cloud division. Shares rose following the announcement, though it remains unclear if earnings per share matched the $2.63 consensus estimate. The company posted revenue of $80.5 billion, a 20% increase year over year, marking its highest quarterly growth rate since 2022. Net income surged 81% to $62.57 billion compared to the previous year. This report is part of a broader earnings wave featuring four major hyperscalers: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft. All companies updated investors for the first time since late February, when the United States began combat operations in Iran. A significant highlight was Google Cloud, which grew revenue by 63% annually, exceeding analyst forecasts. The cloud unit, which hosts most of Alphabet's artificial intelligence services, was powered by increased adoption of Google Cloud Platform for enterprise AI solutions and infrastructure. The company reported a backlog of $460 billion, indicating strong future demand. CEO Sundar Pichai noted that monthly active users for Gemini Enterprise rose 40% from the previous quarter. Advertising revenue, Alphabet's core business, reached $77.25 billion, up 15% year over year. In contrast, Other Bets, a segment including the self-driving car company Waymo, saw revenue decline slightly to $411 million from $450 million in the prior year. Despite this dip, Waymo continued to expand, surpassing 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week during the quarter. Following a $16 billion fundraising round in February that valued the company at $126 billion, Waymo announced plans to launch operations in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The company also commenced fully autonomous operations in Nashville, with a planned commercial launch with Lyft scheduled for later this year. The results underscore Alphabet's ability to leverage AI across its diverse portfolio, particularly in cloud computing, while maintaining steady growth in its advertising engine. The market response suggests investors view the cloud surge and AI integration as key drivers for future performance.