Ad Tech Briefing: Alphabet’s Q2 hints at ad tech’s declining profile in Google’s future

Google-parent Alphabet was the first large platform business to issue earnings in the current round of quarterly calls, with the latest disclosure indicating the online ad giant’s core priorities. More tellingly, the subsequent line of questioning from equities analysts hints at what Wall Street really cares about, and, going by last week’s showing, ad tech is (seemingly) in the rearview mirror for both parties. 

Despite Google experiencing two L’s in its antitrust travails over the past 12 months, one of which involves the potential breakup of its DoubleClick empire, Wall Street analysts posed more questions about Alphabet’s growth outlook for its nascent cloud business in light of AI infrastructure demand than they did about ad tech. 

This is a member-exclusive article from Digiday. Continue reading it on digiday.com and subscribe to continue reading content like this.