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.

Many of Pichai's recent sales were made under a regulatory filing which allows stock sales to be set up in advance by officers of publicly-listed companies to avoid any accusations of inside trading.

Alphabet is set to report its second-quarter earnings after the bell Wednesday. Wall Street expects the company to post double-digit revenue growth, according to LSEG estimates. Google made several AI announcements and talent plays during the quarter. Alphabet is set to report its second-quarter earnings after the bell Wednesday.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched record high closes on Thursday as robust results from Google parent Alphabet fueled optimism about other heavyweight artificial intelligence stocks, while Tesla slumped after the electric vehicle maker's results disappointed investors.

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.