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The impressive numbers mean that viewers shouldn’t expect a pullback on YouTube ads any time soon.

The second quarter of 2025 has come and gone, and that means that companies across the media sphere are reporting their quarterly earnings. Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google and YouTube, revealed this week that it had surpassed Wall Street forecasts, and that YouTube in particular had a strong quarter, especially in terms of ad revenue.

Key Details: Hand over fist: YouTube pulled in nearly $10 billion in ad revenue in Q2. Miles ahead of Netflix: YouTube’s ad revenue outdistances Netflix’s forecast for the year by a large amount. What’s it mean for you?: The results show that streamers can offer ad breaks in a different way than linear TV and still earn big. Sign Up $82.99+ / month tv.youtube.com

YouTube alone compiled $9.8 billion in ad revenue in the...

Alphabet‘s quarterly earnings are in, and YouTube is looking pretty swank: It overshot analyst expectations of $9.56 billion to land at $9.8 billion in ad earnings. That brings it up ~10% from Q1’s earnings of $8.9 billion.

Alphabet overall similarly beat expectations, bringing in $96.4 billion instead of the expected $94.02 billion, with a net of $28.2 billion–a 19% increase from Q2 last year.

CEO Sundar Pichai called the quarter a “standout,” with “robust growth across the company.” He largely attributed this growth to Google‘s decision to embrace generative artificial intelligence, a choice we’ve seen ripple through YouTube.

“AI is positively impacting every part of the business, driving strong momentum,” he said. “Search delivered double-digit revenue growth, and our new features, like AI Overviews and AI Mode, are performing well.”

We’re betting Alphabet is especially pleased with the Search bump for two reasons: one, TikTok accidentally became a search engine for The...

YouTube ad revenue increased by double digits in the second quarter, helping parent Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates.

Total revenue for the period ended June 30 climbed 14% over the year-ago quarter to reach $96.4 billion, the company said Wednesday, while diluted earnings per share also rose to $2.31. Both metrics exceeded Wall Street analysts’ consensus forecasts.

Advertising on YouTube increased 13% to $9.8 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai saluted the division’s “strong performance” in the tech giant’s earnings release.

Despite all of the upbeat news, shares in Alphabet sold off more than 1% in after-hours trading as investors pondered a key number in the earnings report. The company said it was increasing its capital spending target to $85 billion, citing the need to build out services featuring AI. Pichai said the company’s management team is “excited by the opportunity ahead,” but some investors are wary of the arms race now seeing major tech firms spending...

Alphabet remains on a roll as its world-beating streaming-video platform YouTube continues to dominate.

Wall Street forecast Alphabet Q2 2025 earnings per share (Eps) of $2.20 on revenue of $94.02 billion. The company, formerly known as Google, bested both by posting Eps of $2.31 on $96.4 billion in revenue. Net income was $28.2 billion, up 19 percent from the second quarter of 2024.5

YouTube’s ad revenue for the quarter ending June 30, 2025 was expected to come in at $9.6 billion; the Ugc platform bested that with roughly $9.8 billion. Another beat.

Read last year’s comparable Alphabet quarterly earnings here, and the most-recent quarterly results here.

In June, YouTube made up 12.8 percent of all TV usage, according to Nielsen, which far exceeded the second-place platform, Netflix, at 8.3 percent. No one else reached 5 percent. It feels like an insurmountable lead, and may also be the reason why Netflix one day ventures into the user-generated content space.

“We had a standout quarter,...

(Stock image, Graphic by The Desk) Key Points: YouTube ad revenue rose to $9.8 billion in Q2 2025, up 13% compared to Q2 2024 and up 10% on a sequential basis. Alphabet’s total revenue climbed 14% to $96.4 billion. Google Cloud revenue jumped 32% to $13.6 billion.

Google parent Alphabet reported robust financial earnings for the second quarter (Q2) of 2025, with double-digit revenue growth across core segments, including a notable surge in cash from advertising.

YouTube’s advertising revenue increased to $9.8 billion during the quarter, up 13 percent from the $8.7 billion earned during Q2 2024 and beating Wall Street ad revenue estimates. On a sequential basis, YouTube’s ad revenue was up more than 10 percent.

Revenue attributed to YouTube’s advertising business accounted for more than 10 percent of Alphabet’s consolidated revenue for Q2, which clocked in at $96.4 billion, up 14 percent from the $84.7 billion earned during Q2 2024. Net income increased 19 percent to $28.2 billion, while diluted earnings per share rose 22 percent...

Summer shined on the Sun Valley Lodge for the Allen & Company’s annual gathering of media, finance and tech titans this week.

But the storm clouds brewing over an entertainment industry facing unprecedented disruption from AI and other tech innovations means possible M&a deals are certain to be raised in Idaho among power brokers at the annual Sun Valley Conference during the usual hiking, golf and rafting on their schedules.

The invite-only Allen event, nicknamed “summer camp for billionaires,” had Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav captured by photographers as they arrived at the Sun Valley lodge for the annual gathering.

Iger recently turned thumbs down to following Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast in splitting off some legacy TV assets from future-facing streaming platforms. But Sun Valley watchers will be looking to see how Iger gets to grips with extracting most...

Like many people alive today, I have no desire to live on Mars. It is, by all accounts, a pretty shitty place for human habitation. Heat escapes its atmosphere so quickly that, were one to stand at its equator at noon with skin exposed — not a great idea! — it would feel like spring to the feet and winter to the head. The thin atmosphere also does little to protect the planet from meteorites and asteroids, which lob themselves into Mars with some regularity. The planet-wide dust storms are so fierce...

For billionaires and business moguls, summertime means interrupting trips to Portofino by gassing up the corporate jet and heading to Idaho for Allen & Co.’s annual leadership retreat in Sun Valley.

Variety has obtained the guest list to this year’s gathering of the one percent of the one percent, and it’s packed with tech giants, Hollywood moguls and politicians on the hunt for a few deep-pocketed backers.

They include usual suspects like Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and the company’s founder Jeff Bezos; Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg; Apple chief Tim Cook; Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai; and Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. All of these men lead companies with far larger market caps than the Hollywood set.

But there’s a sizable contingent of old media players including David Zaslav, fresh from announcing plans to split Warner Bros. Discovery in two, as well as Comcast’s Brian Roberts,...

Google’s annual I/O keynote returned to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View today, offering a look at what’s next for the company’s AI ecosystem. CEO Sundar Pichai and other execs unveiled a series of updates centered around Gemini, AI-powered tools, and deeper product integrations across Google’s platforms. One of the biggest reveals was AI Mode in Google Search. This new interface adds…

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In the Trump-Europe trade wars, the battle so far has been focused on goods: Trump’s tariffs on German cars and French champagne have been met with tit-for-tat threats to boost levies on all-American booze and motor vehicles, from Kentucky bourbon to Harley Davidson motorcycles. Services, of the sort Netflix, Facebook, Google, Apple or X — not to mention Disney, Warner Bros. or Comcast — provide to hundreds of millions of European citizens, have been off the table.

But that could change as Trump ratchets up the pressure on Europe to negotiate new trade deals and Europe pushes back with threats of countermeasures that could hit Hollywood (and Silicon Valley) hard.

The European Union fired a shot across the bow on April 23, issuing a combined $800 million (€700 million) in fines against Apple and Meta for violations of its new antitrust legislation, the Digital Markets Act (Dma), which came into force in late 2023. The fines,...

YouTube‘s strong first quarter has helped cement it as a crucial holding under the Alphabet umbrella. The parent company of Google reported its Q1 2025 earnings on April 24, and YouTube was a major focal point thanks to its ballooning ad revenue.

During the earnings call, Alphabet execs reported that YouTube’s quarterly ad revenue totaled $8.9 billion. That sum represents a year-over-year increase of 10.3%.

Surprisingly, those gains fell slightly short of analyst expectations. YouTube had been projected to achieve $8.97 billion in ad revenue during Q1 2025. Overall, Alphabet exceeded projections by generating $90.23 billion of quarterly revenue. Analysts had predicted that the company’s topline figure would reach $89.12 billion.

YouTube’s first-quarter activity showed an effort to diversify its revenue beyond ads. Thanks to increasing activity from podcast fans and senior citizens, the platform’s audience on TV screens continues to swell. A new Premium Lite tier figures to attract more customers to YouTube’s subscription service,...

The Google logo appears on the side of a building in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Lee-Sean Huang)

Alphabet reported strong first-quarter results for 2025, with YouTube’s advertising revenue leading the charge as the company beat Wall Street expectations.

Total revenue for Alphabet rose to $90.2 billion in the first quarter, a year-over-year increase of 12 percent. The company’s strong showing exceeded analyst forecasts, which had projected earnings of $2.01 per share.

YouTube was a key contributor to the upside. The video platform generated $8.93 billion in advertising revenue during Q1, representing a 10 percent increase compared with the first quarter of 2024.

Alphabet’s Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat noted the growth was “driven by strength in both brand and direct response advertising,” and added that the company is continuing to invest in artificial intelligence tools to improve the relevance and performance of YouTube’s ad offerings.

The performance of YouTube stands in sharp...

Alphabet handily beat Wall Street analysts’ estimates for earnings per share in the first quarter and also topped revenue expectations thanks in part to YouTube advertising.

The tech giant reported total revenue of $90.2 billion, up 12% from the year-ago period, with earnings per share of $2.81. Analysts had expected revenue of $89.15 billion and earnings per share of $2.01.

Shares in Alphabet surged 5% in after-hours trading on the quarterly numbers, after an increase of 2% during the regular trading day.

YouTube ad revenue climbed 10% to $8.9 billion. The video giant has been gaining as cord-cutting erodes traditional linear networks. With its YouTube TV service now one of the top pay-tv operators in the U.S. and increasing numbers of podcasts and other programming being viewed on TV sets instead of mobile, YouTube is throwing significant weight around as an ad seller. The company will convene its annual Brandcast event for advertisers on May 14 in New York,...

Alphabet reported its first quarter earnings on Thursday, revealing a hugely-profitable start to 2025.

Wall Street forecast Alphabet Q1 earnings per share (Eps) of $2.01 on revenue of $89.15 billion. The company, formerly known as Google, posted Eps of $2.81 on $90.23 billion in revenue. Net income was $34.24 billion, a 46 percent increase from the comparable quarter last year (revenue was up 12 percent).

This time around, YouTube ads alone made $8.9 billion — not as much as the prior quarter, but January-to-March didn’t feature a U.S. presidential election. From October to November 2024, YouTube’s advertising revenue topped $10 billion for the first time and the overall company profits reached $26.5 billion.

Investors will take profit over revenue every time — shareholders are happy with with they see today. Alphabet now has more than 270 million paid subscriptions, CEO Sundar Pichai revealed as part of a prepared statement.

“We’re pleased with our strong Q1 results, which reflect healthy growth and momentum across the business.

Google violated antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in digital advertising technology, a federal judge ruled Thursday in a decision hailed by content companies as one that will potentially open up a primary revenue stream.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of Alexandria, Va, wrote that Google “has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising.”

“For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets,” the judge wrote. “Google further entrenched its monopoly power by imposing anticompetitive policies on its customers and eliminating desirable product features.”

“In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers,...

Updated, with additional comment: Setting up a battle over the independence of a major federal agency, Donald Trump fired the two Democrats who sit on the Federal Trade Commission.

Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya said that they were “illegally fired” from their roles. Traditionally, the commission has been split 3-2 favoring whichever party retains the White House. No more than three commissioners can be of the same political party.

Since Trump took office, the commission has been split 2-2, with Trump’s nominee to fill the third GOP slot, Mark Meador, yet to be confirmed by the Senate. Their firings leave the commission with a Republican majority, something that would clear the way for major mergers to get the green light. The agency enforces consumer protection and competition laws.

On a press call, Slaughter and Bedoya said that they plan to challenge their dismissals in court.

A White House spokesperson...

Brendan Carr. (Graphic by The Desk)

The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has sent a letter to the chief executives of Google and YouTube demanding to know why their pay TV provider, YouTube TV, does not carry a pair of family-friendly channels.

On Friday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he “received complaints” that YouTube TV “is discriminating against faith-based programming,” and posted an image of a letter sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan questioning why the streaming pay TV service did not carry channels from Great American Media.

The broadcaster’s main channel, Great American Family, originally started as Great American Country and exchanged hands multiple times before being acquired in 2021 by its present-day owner. For much of its existence, it offered secular programming that targeted a broad audience; over the past few years, Great American Media has revamped its schedule to include a mixture of secular,...

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to the CEOs of Alphabet and Google, calling out the refusal of YouTube TV to carry a network, Great American Family, as a potential case of discrimination against faith-based programming.

In his letter to Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, which he posted on X, Carr wrote that he has received a complaint from Great American Media in which they claim that YouTube TV “deliberately marginalizes faith-based and family-friendly content.” He noted that the network is carried on cable and streaming services including Comcast, Cox, Hulu, FuboTV and DirecTV stream.

“YouTube TV refuses to carry them,” Carr wrote.

I have received complaints that Google’s @YouTubeTV is discriminating against faith-based programming.

These concerning allegations come at a time when American public discourse has experienced an unprecedented—and unacceptable—surge in censorship.

I’m asking Google for answers pic.twitter.com/jmFvMM3VS5

— Brendan Carr...

As Dei buckles under President Donald Trump, Amazon Studios — along with its parent company, the broader tech industry, and much of corporate America — has discontinued its Inclusion Policy and Playbook unveiled in the summer of 2021 to codify its existing diversity, equity and inclusion practices with the aim, it said then, of creating content that is more representative of U.S. audiences.

“We’ve said from the beginning that our efforts to ensure diverse and inclusive storytelling would be fluid and change over time. We continue to evolve this vital work in concert with our commitment to keep our global audience of viewers at the center of everything we do,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “Above all, we strive to tell the very best stories, while empowering diverse voices in our storytelling wherever possible.”

A person familiar with the situation said Amazon had removed the public-facing inclusion playbook from its website in September,...

Apple Maps is now displaying the name Gulf of America for the oceanic basin known as the Gulf of Mexico.

Users in the United States can now see the new name on their devices running iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Apple, a U.S.-based company, is expected to continue to gradually roll out the new name for users around the globe.

Apple’s name change of the Gulf of Mexico follows Google and Donald Trump’s executive order mandating the switch.

Google addressed the name change in a post on X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter.

“We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” Google posted.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were among the tech giants who attended Trump’s inauguration.

The Associated Press...

Here’s What Ektaa R Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan & Other Stars Said After Attending Pm Modi-Helmed Waves 2025 Summit ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

On Friday, February 7, 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually interacted with influential global and Indian leaders at the Waves Summit Advisory Board Meet. The meeting included a stellar lineup of tech giants, business moguls, film industry icons, and creative visionaries such as Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahindra, Ar Rahman, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ektaa R Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, and Deepika Padukone, among others.

Following the event, Ektaa R Kapoor took to X (formerly Twitter) to thank Pm Modi for his support. “Thank you, Hon’ble Pm Narendra Modi Ji, for your continued support towards our industry and in making Waves a global summit,” the director wrote on X. “Your vision for India as a global entertainment hub is inspiring. We’re...

Chinese tech firms are bringing widespread turmoil to the U.S. market, and one of the world’s biggest companies is feeling the squeeze. Alphabet stocks initially dropped by 6% after the parent company of Google fell short of projections for the fourth quarter of 2024.

YouTube, however, was a bright spot for the Mountain View-based giant. The video platform maintained its momentum from the third quarter by accounting for $10.5 billion of ad revenue. It’s the first time YouTube has ever pushed that number beyond $10 billion in a single quarter.

Much of YouTube’s growth has been driven by its acceleration on TV screens, where it now gets more than 10% of all watch time to lead all platforms. During the Q4 2024 earnings call, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler identified the U.S. presidential election as another factor in YouTube’s ascendance. Political content on both sides of the aisle spiked...

Bill Gates threw some cheeky shots at his fellow tech billionaires who attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Tuesday.

While guesting on “The View,” he was asked about the tech bro guest list that featured most of the big names in the space. Gates himself did not attend, but joked he was sure his colleagues were there for the right reasons.

“They clearly wanted to fund the inauguration, they wanted it to be a great inauguration,” he said with a smile. “For the good of the country, no doubt.”

The question came weeks after Trump’s inauguration saw him flanked by many of the most recognizable faces in tech. In attendance – and sat right behind the dais and in front of many of Trump’s cabinet appointments – were X and Tesla boss Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google chief Sundar Pichai.

The YouTube app running on a smartphone. (Stock image)

Just two years ago, executives at Google parent company Alphabet were struggling to address a trend of lower advertising revenue at YouTube.

Those days are now over.

On Tuesday, Alphabet revealed YouTube surpassed $10 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024, the largest amount of ad revenue ever earned by the world’s biggest streaming video platform.

The ad income — $10.47 billion — surpassed Wall Street expectations of $10.23 billion and was up from the nearly $9 billion in revenue earned during Q3.

The figure did not include subscription revenue from YouTube Premium, the ad-free version of the streaming platform, or other services like YouTube TV or YouTube Music. It wasn’t clear if it included revenue from advertising inserted across some channels and networks carried by YouTube TV.

The income was around 10 percent of Alphabet’s total Q4 revenue of $96.47 billion, slightly lower...

YouTube ad revenue provided a bright spot in an otherwise mixed quarter for Google parent Alphabet.

In the period ended December 31, the tech giant reported revenue of $96.5 billion and earnings per share of $2.15. While those key metrics marked an improvement over the prior-year quarter and were largely in line with Wall Street forecasts, investors reacted badly to lower-than-anticipated cloud revenue and an “accelerated” plan to maintain hefty AI spending.

Cloud revenue of $12 billion grew more slowly than it has in recent quarters, and the 12% growth of total revenue was also the slowest rate since 2023, adding to investor angst.

Shares plunged 6% in after-hours trading as the earnings report was digested by traders, though they have managed 8% growth in 2025 to date despite some loud bearish voices on the Street.

YouTube ad revenue outpaced analysts’ expectations, climbing 14% to $10.473 billion, a new record. The video giant is on a dominant run, registering 11% market share...

YouTube continues to be the dominant player in ad-supported streaming, reporting Q4 advertising revenue of $10.5 billion, up from $9.2 billion a year ago, and surging past $10B in a quarter for the first time.

YouTube reported ad revenue of $8.9 billion in Q3.

The Google-owned video platform is by far the biggest player in ad-supported streaming video, and frankly streaming overall, with the latest Nielsen Gauge report showing that YouTube comprised more than 11 percent of all TV viewing.

According to Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler, the 2024 presidential election was a major driver in ad revenue.

“YouTube advertising revenues was driven by strong spend on US election advertising with combined spend from both parties almost doubling from what we saw in the 2020 elections,” Schindler told Wall Street analysts.

He also noted the platform’s success in attracting podcasters, many of whom publish video versions of their shows on YouTube.

“Creators are...

“This is going to be a big year,” said Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Speaking on a post-earnings call with analysts of myriad technological advances in the works, he also affirmed what’s been evident, that Meta will be “redefining our relationship with governments” under the administration of Donald Trump.

“We now have a U.S. administration that is proud of our leading companies. That prioritizes American technology winning. And that will defend our values and interests abroad. And I am optimistic about the progress and innovation that this can unlock,” he said. “I think that this is the most exciting and dynamic that I have ever seen our industry.”

Meta tonight settled a lawsuit with President Trump for $25 million. The suit stemmed from 2020, when Trump was temporarily thrown off Facebook (and other social media) after the Jan. 6 insurrection when a group of his supporters stormed the U.S.

Elon Musk’s raised-arm salute to Donald Trump drew more attention, but for those concerned about media freedom, another image from Inauguration Day seemed just as chilling. In the front row of the Capitol rotunda, a who’s who of tech billionaires — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Musk himself — lined up to cheer in the new commander-in-chief.

Also showing their support, seated a bit farther back, were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Sam Altman of OpenAI and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew (later on Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order delaying a federal ban on the Chinese-owned social media platform).

“Big Tech billionaires have a front row seat at Trump’s inauguration. They have even better seats than Trump’s own cabinet picks. That says it all,” noted Massachusetts Sen. Elisabeth Warren on Musk’s X, suggesting we were watching what Joe Biden,...

Google Maps said that it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on its maps app, saying that the change will take place when it has been updated in official government sources.

Google also will change the name of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, back to Mount McKinley.

In his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating the name change.

Google said that when the Geographic Names Information System is updated, “we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America.”

“Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.”

The Associated Press announced last week that it will maintain the name Gulf of Mexico in its Stylebook, noting that “Trump...

Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos might dominate the headlines now, but her ex-husband, Patrick Whitesell, quietly carved out his own chapter post-split. Once part of Hollywood’s ultimate power couple, Whitesell didn’t dwell on the past. Instead, he made waves of his own, moving on with a stunning model nearly two decades his junior.

Jeff Bezos | Credits: @jeffbezos via Instagram

While Sánchez’s alleged affair with Bezos turned into tabloid gold, Whitesell kept it classy, letting his enviable new romance speak volumes.

Patrick Whitesell moves on in style after Lauren Sánchez’s alleged affair with Jeff Bezos Lauren Sánchez | Instagram (@laurenwsanchez)

Lauren Sánchez’s love life may’ve taken center stage, but her ex-husband, Patrick Whitesell, is thriving on his own terms. The powerhouse talent agent, known for representing Hollywood icons like Ben Affleck and Amy Adams, didn’t let Sánchez’s alleged affair with Jeff Bezos slow him down.

Jesse Eisenberg, who famously portrayed Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, is sharing his perspective on several tech billionaires pivoting to politics with Donald Trump back in the White House.

The Oscar-nominated actor-director made an appearance on the latest episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, where the host prompted him for his thoughts on the topic.

“You played Lex Luthor in the Superman movie [2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice] and it’s interesting because I see Zuckerberg now at the inauguration and he’s right at the seat of power,” Bill Maher said. “You kind of played Lex Luthor as a tech bro, and you must have some feelings, because you also played, famously in The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg. What do you make of all that’s going on with the tech bros?”

Eisenberg responded, “I look at it from a very specific perspective, which is if...

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It’s not easy to steal attention from Donald Trump.

Especially not on a day during which he’s sworn in as President of the United States (for the second time) and on a day during which he issues a pardon for individuals convicted of assaulting police offers on January 6, 2021.

But Lauren Sanchez sure gave it a try this past Monday!

Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Saul Loeb / Pool / Afp) (Photo by Saul Loeb/Pool/Afp via Getty Images)

The fiancee of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Sanchez was on the dais along with other very rich people while Trump was inaugurated on January 20 in Washington D.C.

As...

Even to the supremely cynical, it was striking to see the most recognizable billionaire leaders of Silicon Valley seated together at an event ahead of the second inauguration of President Donald Trump on Monday. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Alphabet (Google‘s parent company) Sundar Pichai, and Apple chief executive Tim Cook rubbed elbows before Trump was sworn into office — the first three companies had each donated $1 million to his inauguration fund, while Cook had personally chipped in another million. They were joined by Trump megadonor Elon Musk,...

Jeff Bezos’ decision to attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump is not sitting well with one of the stars of Prime Video’s trailblazing series Transparent.

Amy Landecker, who starred as Sarah Pfefferman on the long-running family dramedy, rails against Bezos in an Instagram post that labels the Amazon founder/executive chairman a “roided out monster” who has turned his back on the transgender community.

More from TVLineJimmy Fallon Tips Hat to Melania as <em>Tonight Show</em> Takes on Trump Inauguration — WATCHCarrie Underwood Performs, a Cappella, at President Trump’s Inauguration — Watch Video and Weigh InChris Brown Sues Warner Bros....

“President McRib is back for a limited time: only four years,” said Jimmy Kimmel during his post-inauguration day Jimmy Kimmel Live! show on Monday night.

“Today at noon Eastern, our long, national nightmare was officially sworn in another time, a second time,” Kimmel continued. “Donald Trump became the first convicted felon to be sworn in as president of the United States today. He’s selling inauguration bibles to celebrate, he launched a new meme coin over the weekend to the tune of some say $41 billion — he launched his own cryptocurrency days before he became president. I hope we all understand how crazy that is; the president of the United States, following in the footsteps of the Hawk Tuah Girl.“

When reacting to Trump’s Inauguration Day events, the ABC late night host began his monologue by quipping about the ceremony being moved indoors due to the cold (“harder for Melania...

Washington — Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term on Monday before the world’s richest people. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg were among those seated closest to Trump as he demonized the most vulnerable members of our society, rewrote the history of his criminal prosecutions, and pledged to roll back Joe Biden’s efforts to address climate change.

They smiled. They laughed. They thumbs-upped. They loved it.

By the end of Inauguration Day, Trump had signed an executive order attempting to abolish “birthright citizenship,” cut off all...

While many on social media are calling out Elon Musk for his controversial salute, Jon Stewart took a more generous approach. During Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Monday, the tech billionaire behind Tesla, X and SpaceX gave a speech that was punctuated by Musk raising his arm in what can only be described as a Nazi salute.

“Ok. Charitably, I’m going to say that was just an awkward ‘My heart goes out to you’ gesture,” a shocked Stewart said Monday night after watching footage of the offending gesture. “Listen, it’s a f–king nerve-wracking day. You’re not normally a public speaker. It’s a one-off gesture. Please try not to use it again.”

You know where this is going. The “Daily Show” then immediately played a clip of Musk saluting the people behind him seconds later.

“Son of a b—h!” Stewart yelled. “I’m going...

While some might say Donald Trump’s inauguration marked a somber day in U.S. history, The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart had dick jokes aplenty.

The comedian and political host incised the D.C. affair with one-liners aimed at those in attendance (from their fashion choices to their general decision to show up at all), X owner Elon Musk’s odd/potentially terrifying salute and outgoing Potus Joe Biden’s down-to-the-wire blanket pardon.

Regarding the peaceful transition of power, which began with Biden’s tea-time with Trump, Stewart quipped: “I’m not saying Biden should have done his own insurrection, but there’s gotta be a happy medium between storming the Capitol and ‘would you like a crumpet?'”

As for those present, Stewart marveled at the people who had previously denounced Trump — as a fascist and otherwise — who dropped by: “George Bush seemed kind of there — definitely high. Even Mike Pence showed up,...

Proclaiming his second inauguration as “Liberation Day” in America, Donald Trump today lamented the loss of homes for some of the “wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country” in wildfire ravaged Los Angeles.

Set to visit L.A. later this week, the newly sworn-in 47th Potus took to the lectern in the Capitol rotunda with an inaugural address that was short on the promised unity theme and long on the grievance filled speeches the then former president gave during the bitterly fought 2024 campaign.

“Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina been treated so badly and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago, or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burned from weeks ago without even a token of defense,” Trump proclaimed...

Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on Monday. The event has become an easy way for the rich and powerful to curry favor with the incoming administration. Trump’s inaugural committee has raised around $200 million since he won the election, according to The New York Times, which adds that major donors are being placed on wait lists or being told they will not be able to land VIP tickets.

The ceremony will be especially exclusive considering Trump announced on Friday that it will be held indoors,...

Jimmy Fallon took aim at President-elect Donald Trump’s recent meetings with tech bigwigs.

“Trump’s been very busy. By tomorrow he’ll have met with executives from Meta, Apple, Google and Amazon,” Fallon said on Tuesday night. “When Nicolas Cage saw that he was like, ‘Meta, Apple, Google and Amazon — the clues were there all along!'”

To emphasize his joke, “The Tonight Show” highlighted the first letters of each company to spell Maga. Fallon then continued his Cage impression, channeling his “National Treasure” role.

One of those companies that Trump visited was Netflix. The Republican politician met with the streamer’s co-ceo Ted Sarandos on Tuesday. “Things got off to a rough start when Trump bit his arm to see if it was cake,” Fallon joked.

So far, Trump has met with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Tesla and X’s Elon Musk and...

Ted Sarandos will join the stream of business leaders making the pilgrimage to Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, a source confirmed to Variety.

Sarandos, the co-ceo of Netflix, will visit with the president-elect on Tuesday. No further details of the meeting were immediately available. The meeting was first reported by CNN’s Alayna Treene.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in late November, and Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple followed suit last week. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is expected to visit this week as well.

The incoming Trump administration has threatened to crack down on big tech platforms, particularly over perceived censorship of conservative speech. Tech hardware manufacturers also have much to fear from Trump’s threats to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese goods, and 10% on all imports.

Meta, OpenAI and Amazon also pledged last week to contribute $1 million apiece to Trump’s inauguration.

YouTube TV is increasing its price again, with the live TV streaming service moving from $72.99 to $82.99 per month, starting in January. Customers received an email on the price hike on Thursday morning.

The service — owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet — said in its email that the $10 bump is needed to “keep up with the rising cost of content and the investment we make in the quality of our service.”

“We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we realize this has an impact on our members,” YouTube TV added in its email. “We are committed to bringing you features that are changing the way we watch live TV, like unlimited DVR storage and multiview*, and supporting YouTube TV’s breadth of content and vast on-demand library of movies and shows.”

The service last raised prices in March 2023, when YouTube TV increased its monthly price 12%. YouTube TV, once it moves to $82.99 per month,...

Addressing a hot-button issue for Hollywood and other creative industries, Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicted creators will soon be directly compensated for their contributions to artificial intelligence.

“I do think people will develop [economic] models around it,” Pichai said Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook Summit in New York. “There will be a marketplace in the future, I think. There will be creators who create for AI models and get paid for it. I really think that’s part of the future and people will figure it out.”

Asked by moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin if he envisioned “sending checks” to creators whose work helps train Gemini and other Google AI platforms, Pichai replied that he could see that “down the line.” Even as of now, he noted, the company is licensing select content for AI “where we see value,” from sources such as Reddit, the Associated Press and the New York Times.

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, says that his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. news outlets are about “truth and accountability.”

Speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times Dealbook Summit Wednesday, Prince Harry said of the lawsuit — which is focused on the phone hacking scandal that rocked the world — is about securing accountability for the victims who are not as powerful as he is: “I am the last person that can actually achieve [accountability],” he said.

“The scale of the coverup is so large, that people need to see it for themselves,” Harry said, adding that the details of the coverup “will be the piece that really shocks the world.”

The prince also had sharp words about the media — not just the U.K. tabloids, but also mainstream legacy media, as well as social platforms that he said foment “reckless speech.”

“Ninety-seven to 98 percent of the...

Republicans won big up and down the ballot in the 2024 election, and so did a key group of supporters: billionaire oligarchs who invested their immense wealth and resources in a red wave.

No one, of course, gloated more than Elon Musk, a top surrogate for president-elect Donald Trump and key megadonor to the Maga cause. Confident at the relatively early hour of 10:30 p.m. Et on Tuesday night, he took to X (the platform known as Twitter when he bought it in 2022) to post a succinct update from Trump...

Alphabet delivered another strong set of quarterly results during Q3 2024, and YouTube was a big reason why. The video-oriented subsidiary of Google‘s parent company raked in $8.9 billion in ad revenue during the third quarter.

YouTube’s ad revenue exceeded the quarterly total from the previous year by approximately $1 billion. The platform also achieved an unprecedented milestone by reaching $50 billion in aggregate ad and subscription revenue over the past four quarters.

While there were a number of factors that contributed to YouTube’s third-quarter ad bump, its presence on TV screens provided one of the biggest boosts. Since positioning its annual Brandcast to align with the TV-focused upfronts, YouTube has gobbled up an increasing share of TV viewership while drawing additional interest from agencies and increasing its ad load on TVs to match that enthusiasm.

During the Q3 2024 earnings call, Google Cbo Philipp Schindler (pictured above) said that YouTube’s...

YouTube advertising revenue jumped to $8.9 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024, up from $7.9 billion a year earlier.

YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, beat Wall Street’s revenue and profit expectations with revenue increased 15% compared to last year to reach $88.3 billion, with Google advertising representing most of the revenue, while net income increased 34% to reach $26.3 billion.

Google’s subscriptions, platforms, and devices business, which includes YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube Premium among other offerings, had revenue of $10.6 billion, up from $8.3 billion a year ago.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai noted that Youtube’s total ads and subscription revenues came in $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time. Executives said that short-form video creation “continues to thrive on YouTube,” noting that of all channels uploading to YouTube each month, 70% are uploading shorts, with 70 billion shorts watched daily. The company has also been upping its monetization efforts on shorts.

The death of YouTube‘s former CEO has inspired a wave of condolences throughout the creator and tech worlds. Susan Wojcicki, who led the Google-owned video hub between 2014 and 2023, passed away on August 9 at the age of 56.

Dennis Troper, Wojcicki’s husband, announced her death on Facebook. The cause of death was lung cancer.

Wojcicki was Google’s 16th employee and a trailblazer for women in tech

Her career at the Mountain View tech giant began when Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page set up shop in her garage in Menlo Park, California. During her first decade at the company, Wojcicki held several high-level roles. She was the first product manager for Google AdSense and played a pivotal role in the development of Google Video, which competed with YouTube before Google’s acquisition of the popular video sharing platform.

Wojcicki’s complemented her technical know-how with savvy people skills.

Susan Wojcicki, who served as YouTube’s chief executive officer for nine years, died Friday at 56, her family announced.

Her husband Dennis Troper shared that her death came after she had been living with non-small cell lung cancer for two years.

He confirmed the sad news with a Facebook post, writing:

“It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non small cell lung cancer. Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many. Her impact on our family and the world was immeasurable. We are heartbroken, but grateful for the time we had with her. Please keep our family in your thoughts as we navigate this difficult time.”

Google CEO...