At first glance, the quarterly results of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, were not at all bad.

Total revenue grew 25% compared to last year, hitting $127.6bn. It was buoyed by the ongoing success of Google Cloud, where revenue grew by 103% to almost $31bn.

However, profits at the company fell by a considerable 25% during the quarter. And for the second time in its history as a public company, it showed negative free cash flow, this time in excess of $9bn. That's almost twice the loss of cash Alphabet showed just three months ago.

Cash flow represents the money a company retains after paying for operations and investments, meaning Alphabet is now spending more money than it is bringing in.…