Why Google, Supposedly "Finished," Posted Record Profits: Two "Molts" and a Strategy of "Protecting While Growing"

According to the speaker, an "end of Google" theory has circulated for the past few years. The idea was that once generative AI arrived, people would stop searching, and Google, which makes its money from search ads, would struggle.

The result, however, was the opposite. The speaker notes that in its April–June 2026 earnings, Google posted revenue of 19.5 trillion yen and net profit of 18.3 trillion yen, both record highs. The reason the speaker gives is two "molts."

The first is Google Cloud. As the speaker explains, this is a business that rents out the infrastructure companies need to run AI, and its revenue grew 82% year over year. Once treated as a loss-making "burden," it has now become a driving force for the company, the speaker says.

Search, which ordinary users know well, is a B2C (consumer-facing) business, but now a second pillar has been added: cloud, a B2B business serving companies. The speaker describes this as Google becoming a "two-way player."

The speaker introduces the second one as "kind of interesting." Eleven years ago, Google invested about $900 million in Elon Musk's SpaceX. SpaceX grew for a long time as a private company and finally went public in June 2026. At that point, the unrealized gains on the investment were booked as profit all at once, and this alone is said to have boosted net profit by about $77.1 billion, the speaker reports.

Of an investment from 11 years ago coming back as several trillion yen, the speaker voices surprise: "Isn't that a bit too patient?"

This is the point the speaker most wants to get across. Google has not abandoned its core business of search advertising at all. On the contrary, it keeps earning from it while evolving search with AI. It earns solidly from its core business and uses that money to grow its next pillars, such as cloud and investments. Rather than discarding the old and switching to the new, it "protects while growing." The speaker stresses that this is easy to say but very hard to do.

The speaker also sees this as a lesson for Japanese companies. Japanese companies are said to invest in new businesses but tend to cut those budgets first as soon as the core business weakens a little, and they often hold back because they worry too much about whether a venture relates to their core business. Google, by contrast, patiently grew its businesses over decades. The speaker says that the idea of planting seeds for the next ten years while your current moneymaker is still going applies not only to companies but also to individual careers.

Finally, the speaker adds one caution. The 18 trillion yen in net profit this time includes a very large portion of the unrealized gains from the SpaceX IPO mentioned earlier. The speaker's reservation is therefore that we should calmly recognize that profits at this level will not continue forever.

The speaker wraps up by framing it as the story of a Google that people said was "finished" but had in fact been quietly molting, and asks viewers for their thoughts.