Alphabet

Alphabet reported extraordinary second-quarter profit, but the number that matters for its infrastructure build is less flattering: $44.924bn of capital expenditure exceeded $39.069bn of operating cash flow. Google Cloud is growing fast enough to support the investment case; securities gains are not a recurring way to pay for it.

Cengage Learning and Hachette Book Group are trying to move the Google Gemini copyright case from an author-and-artist class action into a publisher-representation fight. Their January 2026 intervention motion asks the Northern District of California to let two publishing companies appear as class or subclass representatives for publishers whose book rights may be affected by the claims against Google. The operational signal is not simply that another AI copyright suit exists. It is that publishers want direct control over evidence, class representation and licensing leverage in a case where Google says the late intervention attempt should be rejected.