Google's Parent Company Spends Like It's Thinking of a Future Beyond Ads

Alphabet, Google's parent company, is spending like it is beginning to prepare for life after advertising. Currently, Alphabet makes nearly 90 percent of its money from selling advertising on the internet, and gobbles up heaps of data about its users to help marketers target those ads more effectively. But a close reading of Alphabet's financial results for the first quarter of 2018, which were announced on Monday, showed that the Silicon Valley giant is accelerating its efforts to diversify into other businesses. Alphabet has made investments in areas like self-driving cars and online computer services for businesses for years, but spending in those areas was up dramatically in the first quarter. The company's capital expenditures, which included installing undersea cables and the construction of new data centers, were $7.7 billion -- more than triple the same period last year.