Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai emphasised positive momentum in its Google Cloud business despite widening losses at the division in Q2, as he highlighted the overall company was reaping the reward of long-term investments in AI.

During Alphabet’s Q2 2022 analyst results call, the executive said cloud was a substantial market opportunity which was still in its early stages.

Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat added the company was looking at the “path to profitability” for the area, but also noted the segment was one for long-term growth.

A number of mobile operators have inked partnerships with Google Cloud, including Verizon and Deutsche Telekom, as the tech giant and mobile industry look to collaborate on enterprise and network applications.

Revenue for Google Cloud was up from $4.6 billion in Q2 2021 to $6.3 billion, however operating loss from the division swelled to $858 million compared with $591 million.

Pichai cited growth in Alphabet’s search services, as “investments we’ve made over the years in AI and computing are helping to make our services particularly valuable for consumers”.

Revenue across the business was up 13 per cent to $69.7 billion.

Net income dropped from $18.5 billion to $16 billion.

Porat noted comparison figures with 2021 were “particularly tough” given its strong performance that year as it benefitted from a pandemic-related bump in advertising revenue.