Alphabet Beats on Revenue But Misses on Cloud Growth; YouTube Leads in Advertising

Google parent company Alphabet beat revenue expectations but missed on Google Cloud growth. Cloud revenue was $8.41 billion vs expected $8.64 billion.

YouTube advertising revenue beat expectations at $7.95 billion as daily views of YouTube Shorts, its TikTok competitor, rose to 70 billion.

AI remains a focus for Alphabet. CEO Sundar Pichai touted new AI-powered video editing tools for YouTube Shorts.

Microsoft cloud growth outpaced Google, stoking concerns over Google's competitiveness in cloud computing.

Alphabet continues cost-cutting, including recent layoffs at Waymo, Verily, and in recruiting amid a downturn in advertising revenue.