Alphabet posted its second-quarter earnings after Wednesday's closing bell, beating on the headline numbers and giving a higher forecast for this year's capital expenditures. But some analysts say the debate over the future of Google's search empire is still unsettled.

Most leaders in the tech industry owe their wealth to founding equity stakes in their platforms, which Google’s Sundar Pichai does not have.

Alphabet shares rose more than 3% in early trading on Thursday as the Google parent's earnings underscored a key message to investors: AI spending is climbing, but so are the returns.

For the quarter, Google is expected to post adjusted earnings per share of $2.17 on revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC) of $79.6 billion, an 11.6% jump versus the same period last year when the company posted revenue of $71.3 billion, according to analyst consensus data from Bloomberg.

After months of underperforming their tech peers, Alphabet Inc. shares are finally showing signs of life as investors bet that a strong earnings performance will outweigh concerns about a looming antitrust ruling.

Alphabet was targeted with an EU antitrust complaint from six human and digital rights groups on Thursday which urged EU regulators to investigate whether the tech giant complies with legislation requiring it to make it easier for users to uninstall software apps.