Brands
Alphabet Q1 profit jumps 81 per cent as revenue climbs to $109.9 billion
AI-led growth fuels strong gains across Search, Cloud and YouTube
CALIFORNIA: Alphabet Inc. kicked off 2026 with a strong first quarter, reporting an 81 per cent surge in net income to $62.58 billion, powered by robust growth across its core businesses and a sharp acceleration in cloud and AI-driven services.
Revenue rose 22 per cent year-on-year to $109.9 billion, or 19 per cent in constant currency, marking the company’s 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Operating income increased 30 per cent to $39.7 billion, while operating margin expanded to 36.1 per cent from 34 per cent a year earlier.
Diluted earnings per share climbed 82 per cent to $5.11, reflecting both operational strength and a significant boost from other income, which stood at $37.7 billion, largely driven by unrealised gains on equity investments.
Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai said, “2026 is off to a terrific start. Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business.”
The company’s core Google Services segment generated $89.6 billion in revenue, up 16 per cent year-on-year. Growth was led by a 19 per cent increase in Search and other revenues to $60.4 billion, a 19 per cent rise in subscriptions, platforms and devices to $12.38 billion, and an 11 per cent growth in YouTube ads to $9.88 billion.
Cloud emerged as the standout performer. Google Cloud Platform revenues jumped 63 per cent to $20.03 billion, with operating income rising sharply to $6.6 billion from $2.18 billion a year earlier. The growth was driven by enterprise demand for AI infrastructure and solutions.
Pichai highlighted strong traction in AI, noting that the company’s Gemini models are now processing more than 16 billion tokens per minute, up 60 per cent from the previous quarter. Paid subscriptions across services reached 350 million, while Gemini Enterprise saw a 40 per cent quarter-on-quarter rise in paid monthly active users.
The company also reported that Waymo has crossed 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week, signalling growing momentum in its Other Bets segment, though the unit continued to post a loss of $2.1 billion.
Total costs and expenses increased to $70.2 billion, reflecting higher investments in research, AI infrastructure and talent. Headcount rose to 194,668 employees, up from 185,719 a year earlier.
Alphabet also strengthened its capital strategy, issuing $31.1 billion in senior unsecured notes during the quarter and announcing a 5 per cent increase in its dividend to $0.22 per share, payable in June 2026.
With AI at the centre of its growth engine and cloud demand surging, Alphabet appears to be scaling both innovation and profitability. As its core businesses remain resilient and newer bets gain traction, the company is positioning itself strongly for the next phase of digital and AI-led expansion.
Brands
Tecsox names Ritesh Baheti as vice president
A million-order man joins the consumer electronics upstart as it chases the next generation of Indian listeners
GURGAON: Tecsox, the Indian consumer audio and lifestyle technology brand, has hired Ritesh Baheti as its vice president, betting that young, battle-tested leadership can sharpen its edge in one of the world’s most brutally competitive electronics markets.
Baheti is not a novice. He has spent years in the trenches of consumer audio, shepherding products from concept to shelf, among them single-driver Bluetooth open-wear speakers that carved out an entirely new listening format, alongside earbuds and speaker lines pitched at both the premium and value ends of the market. His fingerprints are on the full arc of product development: conception, design alignment and go-to-market execution.
The commercial results have been hard to ignore. Baheti has built direct-to-consumer sales ecosystems from scratch, deployed CRM platforms to manage customer lifecycles and architected order management systems robust enough to handle over one million orders a year, a figure that speaks as much to operational discipline as it does to raw ambition.
At Tecsox, he will lead product innovation, sharpen user experience across the portfolio and push the brand’s expansion deeper into India’s crowded consumer electronics arena.
Puneet Gulati, founder and promoter of Tecsox, framed the hire in generational terms. “At Tecsox, we believe the future of consumer technology lies in understanding the mindset of the new generation,” he said. “Bringing in young leadership like Ritesh will help us revolutionise our product approach, making it more aligned with the expectations of today’s users. His perspective and energy will play a crucial role in shaping products that are not only innovative but also deeply relevant to everyday lifestyles.”
Baheti, for his part, sounds eager for the fight. “I’m excited to step into this role at a time when Tecsox is rapidly evolving and expanding its footprint,” he said. “The opportunity to build products that combine performance, design and accessibility is incredibly inspiring. I look forward to contributing to the company’s vision of democratising technology and creating solutions that truly resonate with the next generation of consumers.”
Tecsox is doubling down on portfolio expansion and market penetration, with affordability and user-centric design as its twin levers. In a market where margins are thin and consumers are unforgiving, the company is placing a sizeable wager on Baheti’s ability to deliver products people actually want, and at prices they can actually pay. The clock is ticking.
