Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw its shares drop by more than 8% on Feb. 5, the largest decline since October 2023.

This drop followed the release of fourth-quarter results that did not meet Wall Street’s revenue forecasts and included plans for increased spending on AI.

The company surpassed earnings expectations by 2 cents per share, reporting US$96.47 billion in revenue.

However, this figure fell short of the US$96.56 billion anticipated by LSEG.

Although Alphabet’s revenue grew 12% year-over-year, its YouTube advertising, search, and services segments showed slower growth.

Recent Alphabet developments