Alphabet ,reports $26 billion in profit for the last quarter of 2016, up 22% compared to the same period last year.
These numbers certainly reflect the Google-made Pixel and Home, but they are much more due to the company's moonshot projects that finally seem to have borne fruit.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet's CFO, says that now is a good opportunity to give a boost to Google's newer investments, hardware, but also to the different bet that the company has made. Essentially, this bet is the moonshot projects that they have been investing in for several years now. According to company data, the moonshot projects achieved $260 million in sales in the last three months of 2016.
In general, there are quite a few projects from the company that, while they have attracted attention, have not made any progress. For example, Google's delivery drone, which had impressed quite a lot, is currently on hold, Project Titan, which tried to bring internet to remote areas via unmanned aircraft, and the Terra Bella satellite, which is for sale.
For the fourth quarter of 2016, Alphabet's net income amounted to $5.3 billion, which reveals that the giant has enough money to start investing in its abandoned projects.
The Google said that while 2016 was all about artificial intelligence and intelligent computers, mobile search and YouTube. It remains to be seen whether 2017 will be an equally successful year.
