Google's Search Revenue Up 12% to $63.4B, Misses Expectations

Google's search advertising business earned $63.4 billion in the third quarter, up 12% year over year, but fell about $1.6 billion short of expectations. The company said AI tools are slowing search growth and eating into profits. For the first time, search made up less than half of Google's total revenue, raising concerns that AI products are taking customers away.

Alphabet reached a half trillion dollar annual revenue run rate for the first time. Its cloud business earned over $30.7 billion in the latest quarter, up 103% from last year. However, search revenue growth slowed to 12% instead of the expected 17%. Google is spending heavily on AI development with no clear path to make that money back.

The weak earnings triggered a global tech sell-off. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 2.2 percent at the open. Alphabet lost $500 billion in market value and Intel shares fell over 28 percent. Amazon shares dropped 2.7 percent and Microsoft and Nvidia also slipped. About $3 trillion has been wiped off the Nasdaq since its peak on October 6.

On the security front, Fortinet released FortiAIGate to help organizations secure AI use. The tool inspects prompts and data in real time, enforces security and privacy rules for agents, LLMs, and MCP tools, and can detect 35 types of sensitive data. Protectt.ai made a majority investment in AIShield, a platform from Bosch Global Software Technologies, aiming to secure AI systems across banking, automotive, manufacturing, and government sectors.

Edge0 released Audio8-TTS-Realistic, a 0.6B parameter text-to-speech model that can clone a voice from one reference clip and supports 23 languages. Quod Financial launched Qanvas, a tool that lets trading desks request new features using plain language, with one feature going from request to merged code in just over four hours. GARDEN is a new system that uses a large language model to create reward functions for cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning, showing big improvements on Overcooked and SMAX benchmarks.

U&I Ventures closed its first fund at $32.2m in San Francisco to back up to 45 early-stage AI infrastructure startups. Meanwhile, more Korean workers are paying out of pocket for AI classes, including training on Claude Code by Anthropic. A survey found 74 percent of Korean adults want AI skills training, and some workers feel pressure from employers who track AI usage.

Key Takeaways

  • Google's search revenue grew 12% year over year to $63.4 billion but missed expectations by $1.6 billion as AI tools slow growth
  • Alphabet reached a half trillion dollar annual revenue run rate while cloud revenue hit $30.7 billion, up 103%
  • Nasdaq Composite plunged 2.2% after weak earnings; Alphabet lost $500 billion in market value and Intel fell over 28%
  • Fortinet launched FortiAIGate to inspect AI prompts in real time and detect 35 types of sensitive data
  • Protectt.ai invested in AIShield to secure AI systems across banking, automotive, manufacturing, and government sectors
  • Edge0 released Audio8-TTS-Realistic, a 0.6B parameter voice cloning model supporting 23 languages from one reference clip
  • Quod Financial's Qanvas tool turned a feature request into merged code in 4 hours and 33 minutes for trading desks
  • U&I Ventures raised $32.2m for early-stage AI infrastructure and security startups
  • GARDEN AI system creates reusable reward programs for multi-agent teams, improving results on Overcooked and SMAX benchmarks
  • 74% of Korean adults want AI skills training, with workers paying out of pocket for courses including Anthropic's Claude Code

Google loses profits as AI summaries hurt search revenue

Google reported that its search advertising business earned $63.4 billion in the third quarter of 2026. That was up 12% year over year but fell about $1.6 billion short of expectations. The company said AI tools are slowing search growth and eating into profits. Google is spending heavily on AI development with no clear path to make that money back.

AI tools may be weakening Google's search revenue

Alphabet reached a half trillion dollar annual revenue run rate for the first time. Its cloud business earned over $30.7 billion in the latest quarter, up 103% from last year. However, search revenue growth slowed to 12% instead of the expected 17%. For the first time, search made up less than half of Google's total revenue, raising concerns that AI products are taking customers away.

Fortinet launches FortiAIGate to protect against AI threats

Fortinet released FortiAIGate to help organizations secure AI use. The tool inspects prompts and data in real time. It enforces security and privacy rules for agents, LLMs, and MCP tools. FortiAIGate can detect 35 types of sensitive data and block leaks before they happen. It also lets companies set budgets and limits on AI spending.

Protectt.ai invests in AIShield to build full AI security platform

Protectt.ai made a majority investment in AIShield, a platform from Bosch Global Software Technologies. The partnership combines Protectt.ai's work with regulated enterprises and AIShield's AI model testing and guardrail technology. AIShield has over 40 patent filings and 11 granted patent families. The companies aim to secure AI systems across banking, automotive, manufacturing, and government sectors.

Edge0 releases Audio8-TTS-Realistic voice cloning model

Edge0 released Audio8-TTS-Realistic, a 0.6B parameter text-to-speech model. It can clone a voice from one reference clip and supports 23 languages. The model uses a dual-autoregressive design and a learned realism critic to improve natural speech. It is open-weight and released under the Apache 2.0 license.

Korean workers pay for AI training to keep up at work

More Korean workers are paying out of pocket for AI classes, including training on Claude Code by Anthropic. One marketer paid 1 million won for a two-day course and now uses AI in 70 to 80 percent of her work. A survey found 74 percent of Korean adults want AI skills training. Some workers feel pressure from employers who track AI usage. Many believe companies should provide training and cover the costs.

Quod Financial launches AI tool Qanvas for trading desks

Quod Financial launched Qanvas, a tool that lets trading desks request new features using plain language. It runs on top of the company's order management system, execution management system and smart order router. One feature went from request to merged code in four hours and 33 minutes. The AI currently builds only the front end, while order handling stays the same. Qanvas works for equities, FX, listed derivatives and digital assets.

U&I Ventures raises $32.2m for AI security and infrastructure fund

U&I Ventures closed its first fund at $32.2m in San Francisco. The fund will back up to 45 early-stage AI infrastructure startups. Its investment strategy draws on a network of 1,800 senior enterprise technology executives. The fund focuses on AI security and enterprise infrastructure.

GARDEN AI system designs reusable reward programs for multi-agent teams

GARDEN is a new system that uses a large language model to create reward functions for cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning. It designs one reward program for a family of scenarios and can transfer it to new settings without changes. Tests on Overcooked and SMAX benchmarks showed big improvements in task returns and win rates. The system explores environment code and training records to build and test reward rules. Results show a single engineered reward can work across related scenarios.

AI stocks fall sharply after weak earnings reports

A global tech sell-off deepened after disappointing earnings revived fears about AI spending. The Nasdaq Composite plunged 2.2 percent at the open. Alphabet lost $500 billion in market value and Intel shares fell over 28 percent. Amazon shares dropped 2.7 percent and Microsoft and Nvidia also slipped. About $3 trillion has been wiped off the Nasdaq since its peak on October 6. Asian markets also fell while Europe's FTSE 100 rose slightly.

Justice in the age of artificial intelligence

The article discusses how artificial intelligence impacts the justice system. It explores the challenges and opportunities AI brings to legal processes. The content highlights the growing role of technology in courts and law enforcement. Specific details about AI tools and their legal applications are expected to be covered.

Sources

NOTE:

This news brief was generated using AI technology (including, but not limited to, Google Gemini API, Llama, Grok, and Mistral) from aggregated news articles, with minimal to no human editing/review. It is provided for informational purposes only and may contain inaccuracies or biases. This is not financial, investment, or professional advice. If you have any questions or concerns, please verify all information with the linked original articles in the Sources section below.

AI Tools Search Advertising Google Revenue Alphabet Cloud Tech Sell-off AI Security AI Infrastructure AI Skills Training AI Investment AI Products AI Development AI Growth AI Revenue AI Market Value AI Startups AI Classes AI Workforce AI Training

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