As Google Cloud sales soared to $6.87 billion during its third-quarter 2022 while the company added thousands of new employees, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he plans to continue to invest heavily in Google Cloud for years to come.

“I’ve long shared that cloud is a key priority for the company. The long-term trends that are driving cloud adoption continue to play an even stronger role during uncertain macroeconomic times,” said Pichai during Google’s earnings report this week on its third-quarter financial results.

Google Cloud increased revenue by 38 percent year over year, compared with parent company Google’s 6 percent sales growth rate in third-quarter 2022. Google’s total sales were just over $69 billion.

Google Cloud Third-Quarter Earnings Highlights

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Cloud was top of mind for Pichai and other Google leaders during the company’s third-quarter earnings report Tuesday.

Ruth Porat, CFO of Google, said the company is “excited about the long-term opportunities” for Google Cloud, which is now at a roughly $27 billion annual run rate.

[Related: Google Cloud Seeing ‘Significant’ VMware ‘Momentum’]

“We do continue to invest meaningfully in this business. We’re still focused very much so on the path to profitability and free cash flow strength here,” said Porat. “But we are continuing to invest in the business.”

Google executives also touted the cloud business’ momentum around Google Workspace and its blockbuster $5.4 billion acquisition of cybersecurity superstar Mandiant.

Mandiant officially became part of Google Cloud last month, adding top-notch threat intelligence and incident response capabilities to its cloud portfolio and customer base.

“We are constantly working to make sure everyone we [hire] is working on the most important things as a company,” said Google CEO Pichai. “We are reviewing projects at all scales pretty granularly to make sure we have the right plans there, and based on that, the right resourcing and making course corrections. This will be an ongoing thing. It is something we will continue doing going into 2023 as well.

CRN breaks down the five biggest Google Cloud takeaways from Google’s third-quarter earnings results around future investments, Google’s hiring strategy, Mandiant, Workspace and operating losses.