Alphabet Inc. reported Q4 earnings of $96.47 billion, missing analyst expectations of $96.56 billion, leading to an 8% drop in shares that wiped out over $200 billion in market value. Despite beating EPS forecasts at $1.21 a share, concerns over weak growth in Google Cloud and a slowdown in its advertising business persisted. Alphabet announced plans to invest $75 billion in AI initiatives for 2025, a substantial increase from previous years and higher than Wall Street estimates. This has spurred skepticism about the viability and returns of such spending, especially amidst competitive pressures from startups like China's DeepSeek.