Google avoids yet another breakup attempt

A federal judge refused to order Google to break up part of its advertising business on Wednesday, instead ordering changes to its operations to address antitrust issues. The order comes at the end of a long legal battle initiated by the U.S. government against Google in 2023, alleging that the tech giant operates a monopoly in the digital advertising space.

In the order filed by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema on Wednesday, she accepted "most of the parties' proposed behavioral remedies, as modified by this Court." However, she rejected the government's proposals to force divestiture of parts of Google's ad business and make the code that powers its tools for publishers public.

"We're very pleased the court rejected the D.O.J.'s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow," Lee-Anne Mulholland, a vice president of regulatory affairs at Google, told The New York Times in a statement.

"The Antitrust Division is pleased that the court ordered substantial relief in the Google Ad Tech case," the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said in a post on X . "We are one step closer to restoring competition and bringing relief for the American people in online advertising markets. The Department is evaluating appropriate next steps."

The exact details of the changes to Google's ad business remain unclear for now. Judge Brinkema's final opinion remains sealed for 14 days while the parties request redactions for confidential information. Google's ad revenue reached nearly $300 billion in 2025, and it hit $81.63 billion in the second quarter of 2026 alone. Any changes to the business could have a significant impact going forward.

This is the second time in the last year that Google has avoided being forced to divest a portion of its business. In September 2025, a judge ruled that Google didn't have to sell off its Chrome browser as part of an antitrust case.

This week's decision comes as Google is shifting its focus, along with the rest of the tech industry, toward AI. In August, the company launched its Gemini 3.7 model , intended to compete with rivals Anthropic and OpenAI on agentic and coding tasks. Google's parent company, Alphabet, has said it expects to spend up to $205 billion in 2026, and 2027 will be even higher as it ramps up spending on AI and data centers.