What’s going on here?

Google’s parent company revealed first-rate quarterly earnings on Thursday.

What does this mean?

Alphabet made a better-than-expected $90 billion in revenue last quarter, up 12% on the same time last year. Even better, the Big Tech firm made over $34 billion in profit – that’s 46% more than a year ago. Alphabet’s earnings were a team effort: each key division delivered a double-digit increase in revenue. YouTube’s advertising results lived up to expectations, and Google Cloud pulled in 28% more revenue than this time last year. You can practically hear the sighs of relief from investors. The firm’s stock had fallen 17% this year, underperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index. But after this news, it initially picked up by 4%.

Why should I care?

Zooming out: Maybe it’s not as easy as 1, 2, 3…

Alphabet makes most of its money from Google’s search and advertising businesses. It doesn’t bode well, then, that advertisers will likely tighten their budgets if the global economy slows down. That, at a time when many users see internet search engines as practically prehistoric compared to AI services capable of churning out curated responses within seconds. That said, Alphabet has the muscle and money needed to fight fire with fire – or, uh, AI with AI. Case in point: the firm previously said it would spend $75 billion on the tech this year.

The bigger picture: Alphabet could be forced into a breakup – and not because it spends all its time at work and never asks about *your* day.

Regulators are concerned about Alphabet’s search engine dominance. This year alone, a US judge ruled that Alphabet (specifically, Google) illegally monopolized the online advertising market, Europe charged Google with anti-competitive practices, and Japan issued its first-ever cease and desist order against a Big Tech firm – in which the country accused the company of strong-arming phone makers into prioritizing its own apps.

What’s going on here?

British banking unicorn Revolut made its first billion-pound profit last year – and in this economy, that’s practically fintech folklore.

What does this mean?

The London-based banking app now boasts more customers than legacy bank HSBC: 52.5 million, to be precise. And more importantly, those account holders are active. They’re paying for Revolut subscriptions, trading crypto within the app, and storing £30 billion ($40 billion) in savings. Combine that with the interest that Revolut made on its own cash, and you get £3.1 billion ($4.1 billion) in revenue for the last quarter. That’s 72% higher than the same time last year – enough to triple the fintech’s profit over the same period.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Better a jack of all trades than a master of one.

A Revolut card is one of Britain’s cooler bits of plastic – but rather than resting on the young-and-hip challenger thing, the company’s been preparing to launch as a fully licensed UK bank. That’ll let it add government-backed deposit protection, mortgages, credit cards, and overdrafts to its arsenal. And that gives Revolut an opportunity to become the primary bank for millions of Brits – the biggest prize in fintech. There aren’t many companies that can claim to be a travel card, stockbroker, crypto exchange, budgeting tool, and – maybe soon – a mortgage provider. Startups, take note: single products are easy to copy – but a one-stop-shop ecosystem, not so much.

For markets: Maybe money can buy happiness…

After spending years building expensive infrastructure, Revolut became profitable at just the right time. See, investors turned against companies putting growth above profit around three years ago, when interest rates ticked higher and optimism dropped off. That forced fintechs to rush fundraising rounds at lower valuations and list on public markets prematurely. Meanwhile, Revolut was making bank. And that income afforded the company a rare virtue: the ability to wait for better market timing.