Silicon Valley is on track to a banner year as tech profits surge, extending a strong run that began with the pandemic.

Google parent Alphabet says earnings rose to almost 19 billion dollars in the third quarter, the highest on record. Microsoft profits also grew 48 percent to more than 20 billion dollars, beating expectations. Their combined revenues were up by a third to more than 110-billion dollars. Both companies got a boost from their cloud-computing businesses, as more people worked from home, and with some schools still doing remote-learning. The two are also selling more ads as audiences move toward digital media. Google is the world's biggest seller of advertising space, and saw a 41-percent jump in sales. Social media firm Twitter also reported strong growth in ad revenues. That's despite tougher privacy rules by i-Phone maker Apple, which companies like Facebook and Snapchat have blamed for slowing growth.

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