Alphabet hits $100 billion milestone; Elon Musk surprises Sundar Pichai with a compliment

Alphabet hits $100B revenue milestone on AI-driven growth; Musk congratulates Pichai in rare social media exchange.

In a moment of camaraderie between two of tech’s biggest names, Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai exchanged messages on X (formerly Twitter) after Google parent Alphabet announced its first-ever $100 billion quarter on Wednesday.

Celebrating the milestone, Pichai, CEO of both Google and Alphabet, posted:

“Just posted Q3 earnings. We delivered our first-ever $100B quarter driven by double-digit growth across every major part of our business. (Five years ago, our quarterly revenue was at $50B🚀)

Our full-stack approach to AI is driving real momentum and we’re shipping at speed.

Thank you to our employees and partners around the world for the terrific quarter!”

Just posted Q3 earnings. We delivered our first-ever $100B quarter driven by double-digit growth across every major part of our business. (Five years ago, our quarterly revenue was at $50B🚀)

Our full-stack approach to AI is driving real momentum and we’re shipping at speed.… pic.twitter.com/L4Yz1iUuyT

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 29, 2025

Within hours, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and X, replied, “Nice work!” to which Pichai responded, “Thanks, exciting things ahead!”

Nice work!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2025

The short exchange quickly went viral, with users noting that the two rarely engage publicly despite being central figures in the fast-evolving AI race.

Alphabet crosses $100B revenue mark for the first time

Alphabet’s third-quarter results mark a historic milestone, with total revenue surpassing $100 billion for the first time, driven by broad-based growth in search, cloud, YouTube, and AI products.

The company’s sales rose to $102.3 billion, up from $87.5 billion a year earlier, while net income jumped to $2.87 per share, comfortably beating Wall Street estimates. Pichai said this reflected the “strongest quarter of double-digit growth across every major part of our business.”

The CEO credited Alphabet’s 'full-stack approach to AI,' integrating artificial intelligence across infrastructure, models, products, and platforms, for fueling the company’s momentum.

Not the first time

On October 23, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a major breakthrough in quantum computing, revealing that the company’s new Willow chip has achieved what’s known as 'verifiable quantum advantage,' the ability to perform specific calculations thousands of times faster than conventional computers. Sharing the update on social media, Pichai explained that the chip’s new algorithm.

Responding to Pichai’s post, Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented, “Congrats. Looks like quantum computing is becoming relevant,” reflecting how even leading tech figures are closely watching the rapid progress in this emerging technology.

AI is driving real business, says Pichai

“AI is now driving real business results across the company,” Pichai told analysts after the results. The company’s flagship Gemini model has been embedded in Google Search, Ads, and Cloud products, while AI-enabled features across YouTube and Workspace are already showing measurable revenue impact.

Alphabet’s cloud revenue jumped 33.5 percent year-on-year to $15.2 billion, outpacing Amazon’s AWS growth rate. The division also reported a $3.59 billion profit, beating expectations and reinforcing investor confidence that Google’s AI investments are beginning to pay off.

$93 billion spending spree to fuel the AI future

Alphabet raised its capital expenditure forecast to between $91 billion and $93 billion, up from the earlier $85 billion estimate, underscoring the cost of staying ahead in the AI arms race.

The bulk of this spending is going toward data centers, specialised AI chips, and cloud infrastructure to power AI workloads. Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said about 60 percent of the company’s recent capex went toward servers, with the rest funding AI-focused networking and infrastructure.

While investors are cautiously optimistic, the spending spree puts Alphabet in the same bracket as rivals Microsoft and Meta, both of which are also doubling down on AI-related capital expenditure.

The friendly exchange between Pichai and Musk stood out against the competitive backdrop of Silicon Valley’s AI rivalry. Musk, who has often criticised big tech companies for their approach to AI safety and data practices, offered rare praise for Google’s milestone.