Google earnings fine print: Record profit on paper, first-ever cash burn

Alphabet burnt cash for the first time since it went public more than two decades ago, even as net income quadrupled to $112.1 billion, profiting not by search or cloud but by a paper windfall on minority stakes in Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The Google parent posted negative free cash flow of $5.86 billion for the three months to June, the first negative quarterly free cash flow in its history as a listed company, and lifted its capital spending guidance for the year to between $195 billion and $205 billion.

Its shares fell about 3% in after-hours trading.