Most leaders in the tech industry owe their wealth to founding equity stakes in their platforms, which Google’s Sundar Pichai does not have.

Alphabet is growing fast in core and cloud segments, though rising AI capex is pressuring free cash flow and returns. Learn why GOOGL stock is a buy.

Alphabet shares rose more than 3% in early trading on Thursday as the Google parent's earnings underscored a key message to investors: AI spending is climbing, but so are the returns.

Many of Pichai's recent sales were made under a regulatory filing which allows stock sales to be set up in advance by officers of publicly-listed companies to avoid any accusations of inside trading.

For the quarter, Google is expected to post adjusted earnings per share of $2.17 on revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC) of $79.6 billion, an 11.6% jump versus the same period last year when the company posted revenue of $71.3 billion, according to analyst consensus data from Bloomberg.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched record high closes on Thursday as robust results from Google parent Alphabet fueled optimism about other heavyweight artificial intelligence stocks, while Tesla slumped after the electric vehicle maker's results disappointed investors.

After months of underperforming their tech peers, Alphabet Inc. shares are finally showing signs of life as investors bet that a strong earnings performance will outweigh concerns about a looming antitrust ruling.