Image Source: Pixabay

After slashing 6% of its workforce and issuing a 'code red' warning over ChatGPT, Alphabet (GOOG,GOOGL) missed its top- and bottom-line in tonight's earnings:

• *ALPHABET 4Q REV. $76.05B, EST. $76.51B
• *ALPHABET 4Q EPS $1.05, EST. $1.20

Revenue growth was just 1% YoY...

That's the lowest EPS since Q4 2020...

That's quite a miss (especially relative to the recent share price resurgence)...

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Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, spoke up about his AI investments:

“Our long-term investments in deep computer science make us extremely well-positioned as AI reaches an inflection point, and I’m excited by the AI-driven leaps we’re about to unveil in Search and beyond. There’s also great momentum in Cloud, YouTube subscriptions, and our Pixel devices. We’re on an important journey to re-engineer our cost structure in a durable way and to build financially sustainable, vibrant, growing businesses across Alphabet.”

Under the hood, Alphabet met its Cloud expectations but disappointed on ad revenue:

• 4Q Google Cloud Rev. $7.32B, Est. $7.3B
• 4Q Google Ad Rev $59.04B, Est. $60.64B
• 4Q YouTube Ads Rev. $7.96B, Est. $8.27B
• 4Q Google Services Rev. $67.84B, Est. $68.9B

As we noted above, Alphabet recently implemented a broad round of layoffs, and CFO Ruth Porat is signaling that the company will keep up the financial discipline.

“We have significant work underway to improve all aspects of our cost structure, in support of our investments in our highest growth priorities to deliver long-term, profitable growth,” she says in the press release accompanying the results.

“The underlying results in the fourth quarter do reflect headwinds due to the challenging macroeconomic environment.”

Alphabet's shares are trading down after-hours (almost erasing all of today's melt-up gains)...

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Bloomberg's Edward Ludlow reported that Porat told him: “We are committed to re-engineering our cost base to long-term profitable growth.”

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