Business and economy·September 13, 2026, 02:00

Google Cloud grew 82 percent, but search is still the biggest business

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Google's Cloud division grew 82% to $24.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, and the Gemini app reached 950 million monthly users. Search is still the largest source of revenue, though.

Google's parent company Alphabet delivered strong growth in its cloud business in the second quarter of 2026. Google Cloud, which sells storage, computing power and AI tools to businesses, rose 82 percent to $24.8 billion. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said so when the company reported earnings on July 22, 2026.

Operating income in Cloud more than tripled to $8.8 billion, compared with $2.8 billion a year earlier. That means the growth is not just revenue, but is also bringing in more profit.

Gemini and businesses

The Gemini app, Google's AI assistant, now has 950 million monthly active users. Growth in new users has slowed since Gemini's big breakthrough last year, however. Alphabet also reports only user numbers, not how much money the Gemini app earns on its own.

Pichai said that almost 90 percent of the Fortune 100, meaning the 100 largest US companies, use Gemini Enterprise. According to him, Google's models process 22 billion API tokens per minute. Tokens are small chunks of text that AI models work with, and the figure shows how much others are building on Google's technology.

The company's cloud backlog, meaning contracts that have not yet been converted into revenue, has reached $514 billion, according to Motley Fool.

Will Cloud overtake search?

Not yet. Search and advertising grew 17 percent in the same quarter. Over the past 12 months, search has brought in $243 billion according to Motley Fool, roughly 55 percent of Alphabet's total revenue. Cloud is growing faster, but is still much smaller in dollar terms.

Analysts see Cloud as a candidate to become the biggest growth driver in the long term, but it has not got there yet. Search still does most of the work and is also growing at a double-digit rate.

What does it mean for you?

For ordinary users, the numbers show that AI is now widely used, both in personal apps and in businesses. You are likely already encountering Google's AI at work through services your employer buys through Cloud.