The company's primary revenue generator, its search engine business, generated $48 billion, a nearly 13% jump year over year. YouTube’s advertising revenue was $9.2 billion, a 15% increase from the previous year. Google Cloud reported a revenue of $9.19 billion, a significant boost of 25.6% year over year. However, shutting down physical office spaces due to layoffs cost Google $1.8 billion in 2023. The company anticipates more layoffs in 2024 as it continues to invest in AI and enters its "Gemini era".
Key takeaways:
- Google spent over $2.8 billion on severance and other expenses related to layoffs of more than 13,000 employees in 2023 and early 2024.
- Despite the layoffs, Google reported growth across most of its core business lines, including a 13% increase in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023, totaling $86 billion.
- Google's AI language model, Gemini, is expected to work across all of Google's core products, with an updated version, Gemini Ultra, currently in development.
- Shutting down physical office spaces due to layoffs cost Google $1.8 billion in 2023, and more layoffs are expected in 2024 as the company continues to invest in AI.