SAN JOSE, California, United States (US): Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is sharply increasing investment as competition among artificial intelligence developers intensifies, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
The internet giant said on Wednesday (Feb 5) that it expects capital expenditure of between USD175 billion (RM687.75 billion) and USD185 billion (RM726.05 billion) this year, up from just over USD90 billion (RM353.7 billion) in 2025.
The spending is expected to go largely towards data centres and infrastructure needed to support AI.
Google is competing in AI with firms including OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Facebook owner Meta.
It is pitching its own AI software, Gemini, against rival systems, while Apple has recently chosen Google’s AI models as the basis for a more capable version of its Siri voice assistant.
Alphabet’s investment plans exceed those of Meta, which has forecast capital expenditure of between USD115 billion (RM451.95 billion) and UD$135 billion (RM530.55 billion) for this year.
The rapid expansion continues to be funded mainly by Google’s advertising business, which remains strong.
Advertising revenue rose about 13.5 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025 to USD82.3 billion (RM323.439 billion),
Overall group revenue increased 18 per cent to USD113.8 billion (RM447.534 billion), while net profit climbed nearly 30 per cent to about USD34.5 billion (RM135.585 billion).
Investors are closely watching Google’s advertising business as the company introduces more AI-generated summaries into its search engine, which can answer user queries directly.
That shift could reduce incentives for users to click on links alongside search results, a core source of Google’s advertising revenue. – BERNAMA-dpa
