Imagine making nearly $100 billion extra and dedicating exactly one vague sentence to it. That's just what Google parent Alphabet did in its second quarter earnings report.
The tech giant reported that its "other income" totaled $98 billion in the second quarter, noting it came from unrealized gains on its investments.
Analysts didn't ask Alphabet executives about the gain on its earnings call. Instead, they focused on its rising capital expenditures and position in the AI race. The tech giant's stock closed down about 1.24%.
It's not the first time Alphabet has done this. In April 2025, the company disclosed a similar $8 billion paper gain. Google has no obligation to disclose exactly where those gains come from, and it doesn't.
The gains are almost certainly related to very savvy investments the company has made in companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and Databricks.
Google was an early SpaceX investor, buying about 7% of the company in 2015. SpaceX also uses Google Cloud for its Starlink service. SpaceX is currently worth about $1.5 trillion dollars since its IPO last month. Google invested in SpaceX when it was worth only about $12 billion — that's a 133x return.
Google is also heavily invested in Anthropic, owning about a 14% stake in the company as of last March, according to filings seen by the New York Times. The AI lab was valued at almost $1 trillion in a massive $65 billion funding round in May. Some investors think it's already worth $1.2 trillion.
Additionally, Google is an investor in Databricks, which was valued at $188 billion in a funding round earlier this month.
Google, SpaceX, Anthropic, and Databricks didn't respond to requests for comment.
Google's investing chops are certainly impressive. But investors are more concerned about Google's own prospects.
The tech giant hiked its capital expenditures to a maximum of $205 billion this year as it races to compete on AI. While Google has strong advantages in distribution and chipmaking, its efforts to build a leading AI model haven't paid off.
It keeps delaying its next big AI chatbot, which some rivals are mocking online.
Still, many analysts remain bullish on Google's fundamentals. Its revenue jumped by almost 25% compared to last year on the back of strong ads and cloud sales, which are also being boosted by AI.
"Another impressive quarter for Google," said Emarketer principal analyst Nate Elliott.