Alphabet’s Google Cloud locks in $58B revenue pipeline

Google Cloud by Alphabet said it had lined up a new revenue stream to generate $58 billion over the next two years. The disclosure was made at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference and highlighted the division’s growing importance to Alphabet’s overall plans.

The cloud unit has been seeking to establish itself as one of the fastest-growing businesses within Alphabet as the company’s traditional search engine and advertising business faces growing scrutiny from regulators and competitors.

Google Cloud currently holds a $106 billion backlog in contracts. CEO Thomas Kurian said about 55% of this, roughly $58 billion, will be converted into revenue within two years. That total includes only projects currently under contract, so any new deals have the potential to keep bumping up the pipeline. The backlog has resumed growing faster than revenue recognized, demonstrating strong momentum.

Earlier this year, the cloud division had already crossed a $50 billion annual revenue run rate. This achievement also solidifies that Google Cloud is becoming a dependable and growing revenue stream for Alphabet, particularly as the company still scales its infrastructure.

AI giants drive Cloud growth

Customer momentum has become one of Google Cloud’s most powerful weapons. The unit saw a 28% increase in new customers in the latest quarter, indicating how much businesses rely on Google for their computing demands.

Most importantly, we see more and more in the artificial intelligence community choosing Google Cloud. Nine of the world’s 10 biggest AI labs are now customers. That list includes OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, which has recently been valued at $183 billion. Both are direct rivals to Google’s AI platforms but rely heavily on Google Cloud to train and serve their models.

The reason is clear. Training giant AI systems requires vast computing power, speedy networking, and secure infrastructure. Google Cloud has distinguished itself in these domains by providing dedicated chips, like Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), and state-of-the-art GPU clusters for accelerating AI workloads. These are not just nice-to-have features for many AI labs; they are necessities.

Kurian emphasised at the Goldman Sachs conference that the AI surge of clients wasn’t some fad. Instead, it represents a structural change in how the next generation of tech companies will scale. As businesses in sectors ranging from healthcare to financial services to media and logistics adopt generative AI en masse, the need for robust, high-performance infrastructure can only increase.

With the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic, Google Cloud also sends a message to investors and customers: it is not only competing in AI but also strengthening the broader ecosystem. This two-part role strengthens Google’s business as a player in and provider to the growing AI sector.

The extent to which AI leaders adopt such tools illustrates a deeper shift. Google Cloud is becoming a supporting business line and a foundation for some of the most resource-intensive projects on earth. That reinforces the company’s aspirations to be considered an advertising giant and a critical provider of 21st-century infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, Google Cloud recently revealed that its L1 blockchain project, Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), is currently operating in a private testnet phase. Rich Widmann, head of Web3 strategy at Google, explained that GCUL is the culmination of years of research and development in distributed ledger technology.

Widmann confirmed that GCUL supports Python-based smart contracts and emphasized that the blockchain is being designed as a neutral platform for multiple financial institutions. He also highlighted that, while similar in scope to companies like Stripe and Circle, GCUL offers unique features that set it apart.

Cloud drives Alphabet’s future growth

The cloud business is emerging as an important driver of growth for Alphabet. Cloud services represented only 14 percent of Alphabet’s total revenue in the latest quarter, but the unit is one of the company’s fastest-growing lines.

By contrast, Google’s advertising business is still generating the majority of revenue, even as it has come under increasing scrutiny. Regulators in the United States and Europe are exploring Google’s dominance in search and ads, paving the way for more competitors. This makes diversification across Google Cloud even more critical.

Alphabet’s use of capital is a good example of this; in July, the company’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, raised the company’s 2025 capital expenditure target to $85 billion from $75 billion. Growth is largely fueled by increased interest in cloud services and AI infrastructure.

Google Cloud’s expansion comes as tech companies are pressured to prove that heavy investments in artificial intelligence will pay off. Wall Street has been eager to see if the billions invested in AI data centers and chips would turn into actual earnings.

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