By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business
(CNN) — Alphabet kicked off a big week for tech earnings as the industry starts to look ahead to a post-pandemic economy by reporting a characteristically strong start to 2021.
Google’s parent company reported revenues of $55.3 billion for the first three months of the year — a 34% jump from the same period last year — and made close to $18 billion in profit, comfortably blowing past analyst estimates. It also announced a $50 billion stock buyback.
The company’s stock jumped nearly 4% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
“Over the last year, people have turned to Google Search and many online services to stay informed, connected and entertained,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement Wednesday.
Google’s cloud business, which the company has increasingly leaned on to diversify from its core advertising revenue, trimmed its losses to $974 million from $1.7 billion in the same quarter last year. Revenue from cloud increased 46% year over year, to $4 billion.
“Our Cloud services are helping businesses, big and small, accelerate their digital transformations,” Pichai added.
With the vaccination rollout around the United States in full swing and a broader reopening of the country on the horizon, tech companies that made…
