Alphabet in January unveiled Chronicle as the latest project to graduate from the X moonshot factory. Focusing on cybersecurity, this company includes the VirusTotal malware scanning tool that Google bought in 2012. Today, the Alphabet division is launching VirusTotal Enterprise for corporate customers that want advanced capabilities.
Likely originating out of Page and Pichai’s absence at a recent hearing on Capitol Hill, Bloomberg is out today with a report asking “Where in the World Is Larry Page?” It goes on to detail the Alphabet CEO’s controversial decision to opt-out of the hearing, his broader distancing of himself from the daily politics and issues at Google, and the many distractions that have kept him busy in recent years.
In recent years, more and more startups have worked to disrupt traditional industries by leveraging technology and big data. Oscar was founded in 2012 to improve health insurance, and today it received a $375 million investment from Alphabet.
With the year well underway, Alphabet has just reported its Q2 2018 results, with earnings of $32.65 billion — up 26% from the same quarter last year. These numbers range from April to June and beat analyst expectations, with the stock up nearly 5% in after-hour trading.
GV is one of Alphabet and Google’s various venture capital arms, with notable investments including Uber and Nest. A new report today details how GV has long-used an algorithm — dubbed “The Machine” — to permit or prohibit new and follow-on investment rounds.
Two of X’s aerial projects are graduating from the Moonshot Factory today to become independent Alphabet companies like Waymo and Verily. Dropping the “project” status, Loon will continue to deliver internet via balloons, while Wing is focusing on a variety of drone-related efforts.
Verily’s health ambitions include both data analysis and developing hardware sensors. In addition to current projects to make a continuous glucose monitor, the Alphabet health division is now rumored to be working on devices that can non-invasively collect blood.
Following last week’s Q1 2018 earnings, Alphabet has published its annual Founders’ Letter. Penned this year by Sergey Brin, it traditionally serves as an update on current progress and charts the company’s future. In 2017, machine learning is unsurprisingly the overarching narrative.
Kicking of the year, Alphabet has just reported its Q1 2018 results, with earnings of $31.1 billion — up 26% from the same quarter last year. These numbers range from January to March and beat analyst expectations, with the stock up nearly 1.7% in after-hour trading.
Sidewalk Labs is one of Alphabet’s lesser known subsidiaries, but is inline with the other ‘bets’ given its plan to use “new technology to address big urban challenges.” One of the first projects is to revitalize Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront with the initiative possibly breaking ground in 2020.
Alphabet and Amazon are fierce competitors with several areas of increasing overlap. This includes the enterprise cloud market, smart assistants, and now home delivery. Today, the retailer overtook Alphabet in terms of being the more valuable company, with Google’s parent dropping to the third place ranking.
One of Alphabet’s more black box divisions is Calico. Founded in 2013, Larry Page once said it focused on “health, wellbeing and longevity,” but put more boldly, it wants to help people live longer. Today, news broke that the company has lost one of its top AI scientists.
Last November, the Securities and Exchange Commission asked Alphabet to further clarify its unique corporate governance structure. Implemented in 2015 as part of a massive reorganization, the SEC wanted insight into the decision-making process within the parent company and its “Other Bets.”
Closing out last year, Alphabet has just reported its Q4 2017 results, with earnings of $32.3 billion — up 24% from the same quarter last year. These numbers cover October to December and do not fully meet analyst expectations, with the stock down nearly 4% in after-hour trading.
This morning the Wall Street Journal has put out a report that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is in talks with Aramco, a state-owned oil giant from Saudi Arabia, to build a large tech hub within the country.
Alphabet’s X division has a number of ongoing projects, while recent years have seen more “graduations” into independent companies. The latest is called “Chronicle” and comes as “cybersecurity needs a moonshot,” according to X head Astro Teller.
Alphabet announced today that Eric Schmidt is stepping down as the company’s executive chairman. Schmidt will transition to a new role as a technical advisor and will continue to serve on the company’s board.
Alphabet’s innovations lab, X, is testing a new approach to bringing Internet connectivity to people in developing countries. In addition to floating Wi-Fi hotspots in balloons, it is now using laser beam links which it has described as ‘just like fibre optic cable, but without the cable’ …
UnitedMasters is a new music label attempting to disrupt the record industry with artist-friendly contracts and data-driven services. Exiting stealth today, it has some unique features and terms that benefit artists, with investment backing from Alphabet.
Alphabet has just released its Q3 2017 results, with earnings of $27.72 billion, up 24% from the same quarter last year. These numbers cover July to September of this year and beat analyst expectations, with the stock up over 4% in after-hours trading.
Last month, Google was rumored to be mulling a huge investment in Lyft as the two companies work together against Uber to bring self-driving cars to the mainstream. Today, the ride-sharing service announced that Alphabet’s CapitalG investment fund led a $1 billion financing round.
Back in July, a report revealed that Verily Life Sciences made an investment and built a lab for cancer detection startup Freenome at its campus. The Alphabet division has now revealed that the lab and offices are a part of the Verily Partner Space to foster collaboration with “pioneering start-ups.”
Nearly two years after the reorganization was announced, Waymo, Verily, and the “Other Bets” are now legally Alphabet subsidiaries. Before this, the companies were all technically considered subsidiaries of Google. However, thanks to a new XXVI holding company the structure revealed in 2015 will soon be in effect.
Generating energy by flying a plane-like vehicle with propellers, one of X’s oldest clean energy projects is facing stiff competition from the falling price of existing green energy sources. As a result, Alphabet’s support of Project Makani has fallen since its 2013 acquisition, while the same fate befalls many of the research lab’s other climate change-fighting moonshots.
