Google Cloud’s $80B Run Rate, 800 Percent AI Growth And $462B Backlog: Google’s Q1 Earnings Key Results

‘Our enterprise AI solutions have become our primary growth driver for cloud,’ said Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings report, which saw Google Cloud exceed $20 billion in sales for the first time.

Google Cloud sales and enterprise customer momentum are on fire thanks to its AI innovation.

The cloud giant reported a record-breaking $20 billion in total sales during the first quarter of 2026, alongside 40 percent growth in paid Gemini Enterprise customers and 800 percent revenue growth in overall enterprise AI solutions.

“Our enterprise AI solutions have become our primary growth driver for cloud,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai during Google’s first-quarter 2026 earnings report Wednesday.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud and AI company now has a record $80 billion annual run rate.

“Google Cloud is differentiated because we are the only provider to offer first-party solutions across the entire enterprise. Our growth in revenue, operating margin and backlog highlights this differentiation,” Pichai said.

CRN breaks down the biggest Google Cloud growth numbers from Google’s first-quarter 2026 earnings results that every partner and customer needs to know about.

Gemini Enterprise 40 Percent Growth; 9X Increase With Partners

Gemini Enterprise is Google’s AI-powered platform and agentic system that lets customers build, deploy and manage AI agents and to automate complex workflows.

“Gemini Enterprise is seeing tremendous momentum with 40 percent growth quarter over quarter in paid monthly active users,” said Google’s CEO. “That includes major global brands like Bosch, Citi Wealth, Merck and Mars Inc.

“Google’s partner ecosystem plays an increasingly critical role in driving Gemini Enterprise adoption,” Pichai said. “We saw 9X year-over-year growth, both in seats sold with partners and in the number of partners adopting it for internal use.”

800 Percent Sales Spike In Enterprise AI Solutions

Google Cloud saw an 800 percent increase in enterprise AI solutions during first-quarter 2026.

“In Google Cloud, we are providing enterprise AI solutions, which this quarter had an 800 percent year-on-year increase,” said Pichai.

“So we are seeing strong demand for Gemini Enterprise and our AI solutions there. We see strong demand for infrastructure in Google Cloud,” he said. “In select cases, we are seeing demand for TPU hardware and TPU hardware in others’ data centers as well.”

He said there’s tremendous demand for AI solutions as well as AI infrastructure, “including massive interest in our GPU offerings as well as TPUs.”

New Customer Acquisition Is ‘Doubling;’ Customers Outpacing Their Commitments By 45 Percent

In terms of on-boarding new AI customers to Google Cloud, the company unveiled the pace of winning new customers doubled in first-quarter 2026.

“We are winning new customers faster with new customer acquisition doubling compared to the same period last year,” said Pichai.

In addition, Google is seeing stronger deal momentum, “doubling the number of $100 million to $1 billion deals year on year and signing multiple $1 billion-plus deals,” Pichai said.

“And we are deepening relationships with existing customers. Customers outpaced their initial commitments by 45 percent, accelerating over last quarter,” he added.

Google Cloud’s Record $20 Billion Q1 And 203 Percent Operating Income Growth

Google Cloud generated record revenue of $20.02 billion during first-quarter 2026, representing a 63 percent increase year over year.

The company’s annual run rate now exceeds $80 billion.

Operating income for Google Cloud surged, reaching nearly $6.6 billion in first-quarter 2026. This represents a 203 percent increase compared with $2.17 billion in first-quarter 2025.

‘Compute Constraint’ Hindering Google Cloud Sales, CEO Says

Google CEO said Google Cloud sales could have been higher if there were no computing constraints in the global market.

“Obviously, we are compute-constraint in the near term. As an example, our cloud revenue would have been higher if we were able to meet the demand,” said Pichai.

“So we are working through that moment and we are investing. But we have a robust long-range planning framework and we see extraordinary opportunities ahead and we are allocating with that framework in mind,” he said.

Google Cloud’s $462 Billion Backlog

“Our backlog nearly doubled quarter on quarter to over $460 billion,” said Pichai.

As of March 31, 2026, Google had $467 billion of remaining performance obligations—which is revenue backlog—of which $462 billion was related to Google Cloud.

“Revenue backlog represents commitments in customer contracts that have not yet been recognized as revenue. We expect to recognize just over 50 percent of the revenue backlog as revenues over the next 24 months with the remainder to be recognized thereafter,” said Google in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.