The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that Alphabet's shares fell more than 13 per cent Thursday for its biggest-ever market value wipeout of more than $500-billion (U.S.) after the company posted disappointing search and advertising sales. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says the Google parent reported sales, excluding partner payouts, of $111.2-billion for the third quarter, falling short of analysts' projections. Ad sales from search and other channels -- a business line that accounts for roughly half of overall revenue and is critical to financing the massive AI investments -- also missed forecasts, growing at the slowest pace in five quarters. The results and share reaction show what can happen when a hyperscaler spending hundreds of billions on the AI infrastructure buildout posts disappointing results in its core business, JPMorgan analysts said in a note. The company's performance stood in particularly stark contrast to rival Microsoft, which reported growth in its cloud business that surpassed Wall Street's expectations while keeping its spending in check. For years, Google executives have argued that artificial-intelligence chatbots and features won't cut significantly into its search business.