Alphabet Inc. has become an artificial-intelligence stock, for better or for worse. Though advertising still makes up the lion’s share of the company’s revenue, investors have been focusing more on the part of Alphabet’s business that seems the best proxy for AI momentum.

As of 11:15 a.m. ET, the stock was down by 8.1%. Overall revenue rose 12% to $96.5 billion in Q4, slightly below analysts' consensus estimate of $96.67 billion. That revenue growth was balanced with search revenue up 12.5% to $54 billion, YouTube up 13.8% to $10.5 billion, and its third-party Google Network ad revenue continuing to decline.

Alphabet reported an earnings beat and strong cloud growth, but the Google stock is spiraling Wednesday. Here's why.