Alphabet beat analyst expectations and launched past Apple on Tuesday morning for the title of world's most valuable public company. The only real dent in its quarterly balance sheet was "other bets," where it lost $3.56 billion. This includes the likes of Nest and Google Fiber, and also its real moonshots: Project Titan drones, Internet balloons and driverless cars. (Video via Google, Titan Aerospace ) It's a lot of money spent, but that's part of what Alphabet is designed to do. It split the components of Google up so they have room to experiment with their brands and sink billions of dollars into things that might work, without dragging down Google's moneymaking bottom line. (Video via Google ) And any money Alphabet is losing now is pocket change compared to what its moonshots stand to make. Research pegs autonomous driving as an $87 billion industry in 2030.