Google’s Alphabet posts first revenue and profit miss in four years; shares slide 10%

Google’s parent Alphabet missed Wall Street estimates on both revenue and profit for the September quarter, its first such miss in nearly four years, as heavy spending on artificial intelligence pushed free cash flow negative and sent the shares down more than 10 per cent in after-hours trading.

Revenue rose 25 per cent from a year earlier to $127.58 billion, short of the roughly $128.2 billion analysts had expected. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.67 against an estimate of $3.02. Net income fell to $26.17 billion from $34.98 billion a year earlier, dragged down by an $8.6 billion paper loss on equity stakes that the company attributed to its investment in SpaceX.