Nine years since the Google Self-Driving Car Project began and over 10 million autonomous miles later, the company today announced the launch of Waymo One. The Alphabet division is launching the first public self-driving service in Phoenix, Arizona and fully detailing how hailing an autonomous vehicle works.
Back in July, Wing graduated from X to become its own independent company within Alphabet. After testing in Australia, the drone delivery division is expanding to Europe with a trial in Finland this spring.
One of Alphabet’s lesser known companies is focussed on reimagining cities for the future through “cutting-edge technology.” An experiment is underway to create this new kind of space in Toronto, with Sidewalk Labs this week publishing a draft site plan that dives into affordability, infrastructure, and sustainability.
Late last year, Eric Schmidt stepped down as Alphabet’s chairman, with the company appointing John Hennessy to the role. A former president of Stanford University, the chairman talked about Google’s China plans, Larry Page, and more in an interview with Bloomberg.
One of Verily’s first projects was to make contact lenses that could detect glucose levels from teardrops. Less invasive than fingertip blood pricks for people living with diabetes, the Alphabet company and partner Alcon today announced that it is putting that project “on hold” due to the diabetes premise not being suitable.
Back in 2013, Google went on a robotics shopping spree with seven acquisitions that included Boston Dynamics and a company called Schaft. That effort has so far yet to materialize, with robotics currently under Alphabet’s X. After failing to find a buyer, Alphabet is shutting down the company focused on bipedal robots.
Ahead of the busy holiday season, Alphabet has just reported its Q3 2018 results, with earnings of $33.74 billion — up 21% from the same quarter last year. These numbers range from August to September and did not beat analyst expectations.
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.