Google parent company Alphabet on Tuesday announced a $5 billion multi-year investment in its self-driving unit, Waymo, after its second-quarter profit and revenue passed analysts' estimates.
“This new round of funding will enable Waymo to continue to build the world’s leading autonomous driving company,” Alphabet’s chief financial official and president Ruth Porat said during the earnings call.
Ms Porat said the company is an “important example” of Alphabet’s long-standing investments.
“We are grateful for their immense vote of confidence in our team and recognising the amazing progress we’ve made with our technology, product and commercialisation efforts,” Waymo’s chief executive Tekedra Mawakana said in a post on X.
During the earnings call, Alphabet’s chief executive Sundar Pichai said that Waymo, which has completed 2 million trips thus far, provides 50,000 weekly paid trips, mainly in San Francisco and Phoenix.
In 2020, the company raised $2.25 billion from outside investors. It was followed by another funding round of $2.5 billion in 2021. Last month, Waymo eliminated the waitlist, making its rides available to all users in San Francisco.
Alphabet’s other bets unit, which includes its self-driving car firm Waymo, added $365 million in second-quarter revenue, up from $285 million from the prior year period.
But its losses expanded to $1.13 billion in the June quarter, from $813 million in the same period last year.
The California-based company’s second-quarter total earnings were driven by a surge in advertising sales and increasing demand for its cloud-computing services.
Its total net income in the June quarter jumped 28.6 per cent to $23.6 billion, passing estimates of $22.9 billion.
The company's revenue during the April-June period surged 14 per cent to almost $85 billion, against analysts’ expectations of $84.2 billion.
But advertising revenue from YouTube, the world's largest provider of search and video advertisements, missed analysts' expectations at $8.6 billion.
"The company's massive suite of income-generating offerings did more than enough to offset an otherwise slower-than-expected picture for YouTube ads – a business that has grown tremendously important for Sundar Pichai's bigger plan,” Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, told The National.
But analysts expect that the Alphabet businesses that did not do particularly well this quarter are likely to pick up a good pace over the next year.
“This is partly due to the expected solid rebound in ad growth as capital costs grow cheaper and smaller companies find themselves with a bit more cash to spare, as well as the need for faster growth,” said Mr Monteiro.
Alphabet’s earnings per share soared 31.2 per cent to $1.89, compared to the expected $1.84.
Despite better-than-expected earnings, the company’s stock dropped 2.18 per cent to trade at $179.59 a share in after-hours market trading.
However, Alphabet's stock has remained strong in 2024, having risen nearly 32 per cent year-to-date.
It closed almost 0.14 per cent higher at 183.60 a share on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of $2.26 trillion.
On Tuesday, it also announced a cash dividend of 20 cents a share that will be paid on September 16 to stockholders of record as of September 9.
Sergey Brin, one of the company's co-founders, owns more than 730 million Class B and C shares, entitling him to a payout of $146 million.
Another co-founder, Larry Page, who holds 389 million class B shares, is expected to receive almost $78 million.
US market leads in revenue
Alphabet earned more than 48 per cent of its second-quarter revenue, or more than $41.1 billion, from the US market.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the company earned nearly $24.7 billion, or more than 29 per cent of its total sales.
Alphabet’s operating income soared 25.5 per cent on an annual basis in the last quarter to about $27.4 billion.
Google services business – which includes advertisements, Android, Chrome, hardware, Maps and Google Play – accounted for nearly 87.2 per cent of the company’s total sales.
It added almost $73.9 billion to overall revenue, nearly 11.5 per cent more than the second quarter of 2023.
Google’s advertising revenue from Search, YouTube and other businesses increased 11.1 per cent to more than $64.6 billion in the last quarter.
The total revenue from its cloud business grew an annual 28.8 per cent to more than $10.3 billion in the June quarter, exceeding analysts' expectation of $10.2 billion.
The company said this is the first time its cloud division crossed $10 billion in revenue.
It generates revenue mainly from fees received for cloud platform services and workspace collaboration tools.
The company has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence as it integrates generative AI capabilities into its search and other services.
“We are innovating at every layer of the AI stack … our long-standing infrastructure leadership and in-house research teams position us well as technology evolves and as we pursue the many opportunities ahead,” said Mr Pichai.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
