‘X’ lab a loss for Google parent
SAN FRANCISCO — Business is booming at Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., even as it loses billions of dollars on kooky-sounding projects that may never produce any revenue.
Most of the losses are concentrated in Alphabet’s “X” lab, a wellspring of far-out ideas that has become known as a “moonshot factory” since Google co-founder Sergey Brin launched it about six years ago.
The lab is responsible for some once-zany projects, such as Google’s selfdriving cars, that matured into potentially revolutionary technology. It also has pursued, but ultimately abandoned, other outlandish endeavors, such as an effort to convert seawater into gasoline.
Like going to the moon, exploring new technological frontiers is expensive.
Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose the X lab’s specific frontiers, it is believed to account for the majority of the losses in a far-flung category that falls under the “Other Bets” segment in the company’s financial statement.
Alphabet’s second-quarter earnings report, released yesterday, showed an operating loss of $859 million in Other Bets, widening from a $660 million loss a year ago. It’s the second consecutive quarter in which losses have deepened. Last year, Other Bets lost $3.6 billion — exceeding the annual revenue of many companies.
The Mountain View, Calif., company can afford to gamble because Google runs the world’s most profitable advertising network, spread across its dominant search engine, YouTube video site and Gmail, as well as millions of third-party websites that draw upon its marketing machine.