How Does Google Afford AI Search

I don't usually post on Reddit, but I read Ed's newsletter, and I've had this question for some time now. Does anyone know how Google can afford to have an AI overview? As you know, AI compute isn't cheap, but at least OpenAI and Anthropic only give you a spin on their model if you go to their websites to ask for it. Google, however, forces an AI output down the throat of everyone every single time they use Google search. It's like if a bar gave everyone a really expensive drink for free for each drink they ordered, whether they wanted it or not.

I understand Google is willing to do this because they're stupid, but do they actually have a way of reducing cost? Is the AI they use for AI overview lower quality? Does it use less tokens some other way? Does Google offset the cost by providing compute to the AI twins via Cloud? Or is Google just too rich to give a damn?

According to a balance sheet I'm too stupid to understand (see relevant pages 2, 5, and 8), Google's net income almost doubled in a year thanks to more people using Google Search and Cloud (or them putting even more ads in Search, perhaps), but mostly through some fancy thing called "equity securities", which I think is money they got from stocks. I'd like to know what you all think.