India, Nov. 4 -- Once seen as a distant third in the cloud wars, Google Cloud has quietly become one of Alphabet's fastest-growing businesses, fuelled by the AI boom and CEO Sundar Pichai's long-term vision. What was once considered a costly experiment is now threatening to overtake YouTube as Alphabet's second-largest revenue engine after Search.

Alphabet reported $15 billion in cloud revenue for the third quarter of 2025, up 34% year-on-year, driven by demand for AI infrastructure, data centres and Google's in-house Gemini AI model. "Google Cloud is one of the most important priorities for Alphabet," Pichai told Reuters earlier this month, noting that the division's role will only grow stronger in the company's next phase.

When Pichai...