The company made a profit of $4.9bn (£3.4bn) for the fourth quarter, an increase from $4.7bn a year ago.

The announcement sent its share price up as much as 9% in after-hours trading.

That means that Alphabet is now worth around $568bn, compared with Apple, which has a value of $535bn.

It is the first time that Alphabet has separated out the results of its Google business - which includes the search engine and YouTube - from its "Other Bets" business, which includes more experimental ventures such as self-driving cars and internet balloon programs.

(BBC News)