Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced the combined milestone, including trials, as YouTube’s third-quarter advertising revenue topped $11.2 billion, up from $10.3 billion a year earlier.
Google-owned YouTube surpassed 150 million combined YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscribers globally, including trials, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said alongside the company’s third-quarter earnings on 28 October. Alphabet’s net income fell to $26.17 billion from $34.98 billion a year earlier despite 25% revenue growth, while free cash flow was negative $9.07 billion.
The Hollywood Reporter covered the subscriber announcement. YouTube had disclosed more than 125 million combined subscribers, also including trials, in 2025. The company does not disclose separate counts for the two services.
Alphabet’s July–September revenue rose 25%, its 13th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Revenue and earnings per share—the profit allocated to each share—missed analyst forecasts cited by Deadline.
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Forecast for Q3 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $127.6 billion | $102.3 billion | $127.8 billion |
| Earnings per share |
The satellite operator expects access to more than twice OneWeb’s current bandwidth in return for spending in 2027–2034, with initial IRIS² services expected from 2030.
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| $2.12 |
| $2.87 |
| $3.01 |
Fortune said an $8.7 billion paper loss on equity investments reduced earnings by 55 cents per share. That loss reflected a change in the investments’ value rather than a cash payment. Operating income, the profit from running the business, rose 30% from a year earlier to $40.58 billion, though it slipped from $40.8 billion in the preceding quarter.
Alphabet shares fell more than 9% in after-hours trading on 28 October, SiliconANGLE said. That was an extended-trading observation, not a closing-price result.
In May 2018, YouTube announced Music as a separate subscription service for ad-free music streaming, while keeping its benefits within Premium, the broader ad-free video subscription. The milestone is a combined count for these related offerings, not separate audience totals for music and video.
| Period | Advertising revenue |
|---|---|
| Q3 2025 | $10.3 billion |
| Q3 2026 | More than $11.2 billion |
Advertising sales were roughly level with the preceding quarter.
Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, announced international expansion of advertising in SI Mode, its Search experience powered by superintelligence (SI), during the earnings call on 28 October, TechCrunch said. The announcement came as Search revenue growth slowed.
| 2026 quarter | Revenue growth |
|---|---|
| First quarter | 19% |
| Second quarter | 17% |
| Third quarter | 12% |
In his earnings statement carried by 9to5Google, Pichai said SI investments were driving growth in searches, including commercial searches. He said the annual rate of growth in search queries was the highest in five years.
Google Cloud, Alphabet’s cloud-computing division, grew revenue by 103%. Pichai attributed the growth to demand for Alphabet’s SI infrastructure and services. Melissa Otto, head of Visible Alpha Research at S&P Global in October 2026, said Cloud’s profit margin widened to 36.2%.
Pichai also said the Gemini app had reached one billion users, making it the fastest-growing product in Google’s history.
Free cash flow is cash generated by operations after capital spending; a negative figure means capital spending exceeded the cash operations generated. The preceding quarter’s outflow was $5.9 billion. Capital expenditure means spending on long-lived assets such as data centres; capital spending rose 114% from a year earlier.
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud revenue | $30.71 billion | $15.16 billion in Q3 2025 |
| Alphabet free cash flow | Negative $9.07 billion | Negative $5.9 billion in Q2 2026 |
| Alphabet capital expenditure | $51.36 billion | Up 114% from Q3 2025 |
In July, Alphabet raised its planned capital expenditure for 2026 to $195 billion–$205 billion from $180 billion–$190 billion, driven by SI data-centre construction. The company maintained that full-year spending forecast with its third-quarter results.
Microsoft reported $33.17 billion in Azure revenue and a 22% year-over-year decline in Windows OEM and devices revenue. Its reporting overhaul brings quarterly disclosure of Azure’s dollar contribution.
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The US wireless carrier’s third-quarter service revenue rose 6% to $19.4 billion as it raised its expectations for the full year.
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