Google's capital expenditures tripled

Google's capital expenditures tripled in the first quarter of 2018 from the same period the year before, more than doubling analyst estimates.

Google-parent Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates in its earnings report Monday, posting revenue of $31.15 billion compared to $30.29 billion expected.

And the search engine giant certainly appears to be spending money to make money.

Capital expenditures for Alphabet's Google division totaled $7.669 billion for the first quarter of 2018.

That's triple expenditures from the same period in 2017, when Google posted expenditures of $2.409 billion, and double expenditures for the fourth quarter of 2017 when Google spent $3.805 billion.

Analysts had expected just $3.5 billion in capital expenditures for the first quarter for all of Alphabet's divisions.

Data centers and other facilities represented a key driver of costs, CFO Ruth Porat said on the earnings call. Google completed a $2.4 billion purchase of New York City's Chelsea Market last month.

Content acquisition for YouTube and hardware related costs also drove expenditures up, Porat said.