Remember the narrative? ChatGPT was going to kill Google Search. Perplexity was the “Google killer.” AI was going to make the search box obsolete.

Well, Google just reported Q4 2025 earnings, and the data tells a very different story.

Google Search revenue grew 17% YoY to $63.1 billion in a single quarter. That’s the fastest growth rate since early 2022. And the trend line throughout 2025 wasn’t flat — it was accelerating:

• Q1 2025: Search grew 10%
• Q2 2025: Search grew 12%
• Q3 2025: Search grew 15%
• Q4 2025: Search grew 17%

Read that again. Search revenue growth accelerated every single quarter in 2025, at the exact same time AI Overviews and AI Mode were scaling globally, and ChatGPT was hitting 810 million monthly users.

Sundar Pichai put it plainly on the earnings call: “We haven’t seen any evidence of cannibalization.”

Let’s unpack why this matters for B2B founders.

The “AI Kills Search” Thesis Was Wrong

Two years ago, the conventional wisdom was clear: once users could just ask an AI chatbot a question and get a direct answer, they’d stop going to Google. Traffic would crater. Ad revenue would follow.

It made intuitive sense. And it was wrong.

Here’s what actually happened. Google shipped over 250 AI product launches in Q4 alone — integrating AI Overviews and AI Mode directly into Search. Rather than cannibalizing queries, these features expanded them. Daily AI Mode queries per user doubled since launch. Queries in AI Mode run 3x longer than traditional searches. And a “significant portion” of AI Mode queries lead to follow-up questions.

In other words, AI didn’t replace the search session. It deepened it. Users aren’t searching less. They’re searching more, in more complex ways, staying longer, and generating more monetizable intent signals along the way.

Pichai described it as “an expansionary moment for Search.”

When the CEO of a $400B/year revenue company says AI is expanding his core business rather than threatening it, that’s worth paying attention to.

Search Revenue Is Growing the Fastest in Nearly 3 Years

Let’s put the full Q4 picture together:

• Google Search & Other: $63.1B (+17% YoY) — fastest growth in nearly 3 years
• Google Cloud: $17.7B (+48% YoY) — backlog hit $240B, up 55% sequentially and more than doubling YoY
• Total Alphabet Revenue: $113.8B (+18% YoY) — first year ever above $400B in annual revenue
• Gemini: 750 million monthly active users, up from 650M just one quarter earlier. Processing 10 billion tokens per minute via API.
• Net Income: $34.5B for the quarter. $73.3B in free cash flow for the full year.
• 2026 CapEx Guidance: $175B-$185B — roughly double 2025 spending.

That last number is what really tells the story. Google isn’t spending $180B because they’re scared. They’re spending it because demand for AI compute is outrunning supply. About half of that AI compute is going to Cloud customers — external, revenue-generating demand.

What About ChatGPT and Perplexity?

Yes, ChatGPT has ~810 million MAUs. And yes, Google’s search market share has dipped below 90% for the first time since 2015. That’s real.

But here’s the part the “Google is dead” crowd misses: Google also has a massive AI product. Gemini just hit 750M MAUs and is closing the gap with ChatGPT fast. Google’s Gemini market share in AI chatbots has nearly quadrupled from ~5.4% to ~21.5% in twelve months. Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s share has dropped from 87% to roughly 64-68%.

And Perplexity? Still at about 2% market share. Interesting product. Not a Google killer.

The real story isn’t “ChatGPT vs. Google.” It’s that Google is playing both sides of the disruption — maintaining its search monopoly while building one of the two dominant AI platforms. That’s an incredibly strong position.

AI traffic to websites from all AI platforms combined still represents only about 0.15% of total internet traffic. Google organic search is 48.5%. The scale difference is enormous.

The B2B + AI Takeaway

For founders, the Google earnings tell a few important things:

1. Search-based distribution isn’t dying — it’s evolving. If your GTM depends on SEO or paid search, the channel isn’t going away. But the nature of queries is changing. They’re longer, more conversational, and more complex. Your content strategy needs to match.

2. Google Cloud is becoming an AI juggernaut. 48% growth on a $70B+ run rate is extraordinary. Nearly 75% of Google Cloud customers are using their AI products. If you’re building on GCP or selling to enterprises that are, the demand tailwind is enormous. The number of billion-dollar deals in 2025 surpassed the previous three years combined.

3. The “AI vs. Search” framing was always too simple. Google isn’t choosing between AI and Search. They’re merging them. AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini are all part of the same funnel. This creates more surface area for ads, more user engagement, and more data to train the next generation of models. It’s a flywheel, not a trade-off.

4. Distribution still beats everything. Gemini went from 350M to 750M MAUs in about 9 months — not because it’s objectively better than ChatGPT, but because it’s embedded in Android, Chrome, Gmail, and Google Workspace. For B2B founders, this is a reminder: the product integrated into the workflow wins. It’s why Copilot is in Office, why Gemini is in Workspace, and why your AI feature should be in your users’ daily flow — not a separate tab.

One Thing To Watch

Google is now testing ads directly in AI Mode — placing them below AI-generated responses. They also announced a pilot called “Direct Offers” that shows exclusive retailer promotions to users in AI Mode who are “ready to buy.”

If this works at scale, it means AI-powered search could actually be more monetizable per query than traditional search, because user intent is clearer and sessions are deeper.

That’s the opposite of what everyone predicted two years ago.

AI Didn’t Kill Google Search. It Made It Stronger. What About You?

Google crossed $400 billion in annual revenue. Search is growing at its fastest pace in three years. Cloud is a $70B+ run rate business growing 48%. Gemini has 750 million users. And the company is doubling its infrastructure spending because demand is outstripping supply.

AI didn’t kill Google Search. It made it stronger. The bear case is dead.

And for the rest of us building in B2B + AI: if the largest advertising platform in the history of the world just figured out how to make AI additive to its core business, that’s the playbook. Don’t build AI as a replacement for what works. Build it as an accelerant.

And Come Meet The Whole Google Cloud Team at SaaStr AI 2026, May 12-14!!

We’re proud to have Google Cloud back as a 7x SaaStr AI Annual Diamond partner!  Come learn how to take Gemini and Google Cloud to the next level at SaaStr AI 2026!

If you’re building on GCP, selling to enterprises going all-in on AI, or just want to understand where the $70B+ Cloud business is headed next, this is the place. 10,000+ B2B + AI leaders. 300+ speakers. The Bay Area. Come join us.