Hidden Details in Google's Financial Report: A Mysterious Investment Got $8 Billion Return

Google quietly gained an $8 billion investment return, but the source of this gain remains a mystery, with Google barely mentioning the reason in its financial report.

At the bottom of Google's financial report released on Thursday, there's an obscure accounting term:"For the three months ended March 31, 2025, OI&E (Other Income and Expenses) was $11.2 billion, including $8 billion in unrealized gains from our non-marketable equity investment in a private company."

This can be understood as: Google invested in a certain company, and now the value of this company has significantly increased compared to before, resulting in an $8 billion gain on Google's books.

This gain is substantial even for a giant like Google. It helped drive the company's quarterly net profit to $35.5 billion, a significant increase from $23.7 billion in the same period last year.

Surprisingly, Wall Street analysts showed no interest in this huge sum. During Google's earnings call, not a single analyst asked about the source of this $8 billion. No one showed any interest in knowing which of Google's investments suddenly appreciated so much.

This reaction is understandable to some extent: professionals analyzing Google are more focused on its core business - advertising sales; perhaps analysts also expected that even if they asked, Google wouldn't disclose details.

Indeed, when Business Insider reporters asked Google's communications department about the details of this gain, they received no explanation.

So which company did Google invest in that brought them an $8 billion profit? According to Business Insider's investigation and analysis, the following three are the most likely "suspects":

Anthropic: This seems to be the most reasonable guess. Google reportedly owns about 14% of this OpenAI competitor. Like other AI platforms, Anthropic's valuation has recently skyrocketed. According to Yahoo's private company tracking service, at the end of last year, a funding round valued the company at $41 billion, while in a new round of funding in March 2025, its valuation reached $61.5 billion.

Databricks: This is a company with low visibility outside Silicon Valley but closely watched by the tech world, as the funding trajectory of this analytics platform is equally noteworthy. At the end of 2024, $10 billion in funding brought the company's valuation to $62 billion, a significant increase from $43 billion in the fall of 2023.

Stripe: This online payment company has long been highly valued and has always been a hot candidate for IPO. But Stripe doesn't seem very interested in going public anytime soon. Its valuation is not driven by funding rounds, but determined by secondary market sales that allow existing investors and employees to cash out. The value of these transactions has also been rising: recent transactions reportedly valued Stripe at $91.5 billion, up from $50 billion a few years ago.