For the first time ever, Google Cloud turned a profit thanks to a 28 percent spike in sales which represented the fastest growing segment of its parent company Google.

During Google’s first quarter financial earnings report yesterday, CEO Sundar Pichai said he is bullish about investing in Google Cloud around artificial intelligence as well as driving enterprise customer momentum and continued profitability.

“Google Cloud delivered profitability this quarter and we remain focused on long-term value creation here,” said Pichai. “We continue to be on a long and exciting journey to build that business.”

Additionally, Google executives spoke about the $280 billion company’s plan around hiring for the remainder of 2023, as well as the $2.6 billion charges mostly related to employee severance payments after Google laid off 12,000 employees.

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Google’s Q1 Earnings Results

Before jumping into the biggest takeaways from Google’s (GOOGL) first quarter 2023 earnings results, looking at the company’s overall results, Google generated total revenue of $69.8 billion. This represents an increase of 3 percent compared to the $68 billion in sales Google captured in first quarter 2022.

Operating income for Google was $17.4 billion for the quarter, down from $20.1 billion year over year. Google reported a net income of $15 billion, a decrease from $16.4 billion in first quarter 2022.

AI was top of mind for Pichai and the other Google executives on the earnings call with media and analysts.

“Our open approach to AI development, coupled with our industry-leading TPUs and best-in-class GPUs from NVIDIA, enable innovative companies to tackle any AI workload with speed and flexibility,” said Pichai.

CRN breaks down the six biggest takeaways from Google’s first quarter 2023 earnings call around Google Cloud, AI and employee layoffs and hiring.