Google's new spending binge shows Alphabet Inc running after biggest rivals

Alphabet Inc.’s first-quarter results came with a clear message to Wall Street: The company is embarking on a new spending binge to chase its biggest rivals.

Google’s parent posted the strongest sales growth in almost four years on Monday, indicating marketers kept flocking to its services amid rising scrutiny of digital ads. But the company also spent at historic levels, nearly tripling capital expenditure for the quarter to $7.7 billion.

Almost all of that spending went to buttress newer cloud and consumer-device businesses that lag behind leaders Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. After neglecting these markets for years in favour of its