Alphabet reports record Q1 with Waymo at 500,000 autonomous rides per week across 11 cities

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai described Q1 2026 as 'a terrific start to the year,' with AI investments driving performance across every business unit. Waymo launched in Nashville, its sixth new city in 2026, expanding operations to 11 major U.S. cities total, and surpassed 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week — doubling its volume in less than a year. Google Cloud posted strong momentum heading into Google Cloud Next, with I/O developer conference scheduled for May 19. The results demonstrate that Alphabet's AI spending is translating into measurable growth across cloud, search, and autonomous driving, positioning the company as one of the few to have commercialized AI across multiple consumer and enterprise verticals simultaneously.