Alphabet Shares Drop After Q3 Profit Misses Targets and AI Capex Deepens Cash Burn

Alphabet shares tumbled up to 11% in after-hours trading after reporting third-quarter results that missed Wall Street earnings expectations and revealed heavy cash burn from AI infrastructure investments. While Q3 consolidated revenue climbed 25% year-over-year to $127.6 billion and Google Cloud sales surged 103% to $30.71 billion, diluted earnings per share fell 26% to $2.12, trailing consensus estimates of roughly $3.01 to $3.02. Bottom-line results were hit by an $8.2 billion to $8.7 billion loss on equity securities, including SpaceX. Meanwhile, quarterly capital spending reached $51.4 billion, driving free cash flow to negative $9.07 billion.