Alphabet Revenue Forecast at $128.18 Billion Ahead of Third-Quarter Results
Key Facts
Alphabet was set to report third-quarter results after the market close on October 28, 2026, in a report investors are watching to see whether growth in its cloud business can keep pace with the cost of expanding infrastructure. The company was scheduled to hold its earnings call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, according to The Alpha Agentic. Revenue is forecast at $128.18 billion, up 25.2% year over year. Analysts expect Google Cloud revenue to reach $29.57 billion, up 95.1%. The focus ahead of the results was therefore on whether cloud growth would continue and what the company would signal about spending and cash flow.
The company had crossed the $100 billion quarterly revenue threshold a year earlier, not in results reported on October 28, 2026. It recorded revenue of $102.3 billion in the third quarter of 2025, up 16% from a year earlier, according to AP News. In the second quarter of 2026, the latest reported quarter before the results date, revenue rose 24% to $119.8 billion, compared with $96.43 billion in the second quarter of 2025. That comparison sets a high base for the third-quarter results as investors assess whether the annual growth pace is continuing. The $128.18 billion figure was therefore a forecast for the upcoming quarter, not revenue the company had reported.
Much of the second-quarter growth came from Google Services, whose revenue rose 15% to $94.5 billion. Within the segment, Search and other related revenue increased 17%, while YouTube advertising grew 13%, according to Alphabet's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Google Cloud recorded revenue of $24.8 billion in the same quarter, up 82% year over year. The company attributed the acceleration in cloud growth to enterprise AI solutions and core GCP services. CEO Sundar Pichai said, "Our investments in AI are redefining what's possible across every part of our business." The results show growth spanning Search, advertising and cloud, with cloud emerging as a major center of demand for infrastructure and AI solutions.
But the pace of investment weighed on cash remaining after spending. Capital expenditures totaled $44.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026, against operating cash flow of $39.1 billion, leaving free cash flow negative at $5.9 billion, according to data from The Alpha Agentic. This was not the first quarter in which the company posted negative free cash flow, as the previous draft suggested; it had already occurred in the second quarter. In July, Alphabet raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion, from $180 billion to $190 billion. The range includes investment in technical infrastructure and does not mean that all spending is allocated to AI alone. With spending growing to this level, the comparison between operating cash flow and investment is a key measure of what the results may reveal about funding the expansion.
Google Cloud's accumulated obligations point to the scale of demand awaiting fulfillment: they reached $514 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2026, an increase of more than $50 billion from the previous quarter, according to The Alpha Agentic. That backlog provides context for the expected acceleration in cloud revenue in the third quarter, but comes alongside heavy capital spending to expand technical capacity. Markets are watching to see whether the company links this demand to revenue growth and cash flow in its results, and whether it adjusts its 2026 spending range or provides indications for 2027. In trading on October 28, Alphabet shares closed at $324.86, according to EL7 data. The stock had fallen about 3% in extended trading after the second-quarter results and an increase in the capital spending forecast were announced on July 22, according to Reuters via MarketScreener.