#alphabet

#alphabet

There are numerous ways to bet on AI (artificial intelligence). But two paths are particularly intriguing: the AI technology suppliers and the beneficiaries of AI at scale. In other words, you can buy the company selling the "picks and shovels," or the chips and systems powering AI. Or, alternatively, you can invest in a company that integrates AI into existing products, services, and infrastructure used by billions of people.

Shares rose as much as 1.7% to $334.04, translating to a market cap of $4 trillion. The company recently overtook Apple Inc. to become the second-largest firm, behind Nvidia Corp. Only Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft Corp. have topped the $4 trillion barrier, and Nvidia remains the lone company to ever crest $5 trillion. Monday's gain came after CNBC reported that Apple had picked the company's Gemini to run an AI-powered version of its Siri digital assistant.

Alphabet Inc. has overtaken Apple Inc. to become the second-most valuable company by market capitalization, a reflection of how the Google parent has emerged as one of the most significant winners of artificial intelligence. Shares of Alphabet rose 2.4% on Wednesday, closing with a valuation of $3.89 trillion. That allowed it to surpass Apple, which closed with a market cap of $3.85 trillion on Wednesday, following a six-day slump that erased nearly 5% and almost $200 billion off its value.

Alphabet is one of the world's most dominant technology platforms, operating a global portfolio of services spanning Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, and digital advertising infrastructure. The company controls the largest share of global search traffic and online video consumption, giving it unparalleled data scale and monetization power. Alphabet's business is reinforced by deep network effects, massive computing infrastructure, and expanding AI capabilities across consumer, enterprise, and cloud workloads.

Shares of Meta Platforms have advanced 13% year to date, bringing its market value to $1.6 trillion. Meanwhile, shares of Google parent Alphabet have advanced 64%, bringing the company's market value to $3.7 trillion. Three top hedge fund managers bought both stocks in the third quarter. Israel Englander of Millennium Management added 793,500 shares of Meta Platforms and 2.2 million shares of Alphabet. Both stocks rank among his top 10 holdings.

Alphabet's cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are worth $265 billion and $246 billion each as of Monday's close, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. They're the second- and third-richest people on the planet, behind only Elon Musk and his $638 billion net worth. Page and Brin have added $97 billion and $88 billion to their respective fortunes since the start of January, for a joint wealth gain of $185 billion, the rich list shows.

Investing in the stock market is an excellent way to build lasting wealth over the long term. By leveraging the power of compounding returns, you can grow your nest egg into a significant amount of money for retirement or other financial goals in mind. There are many approaches to investing, but one popular option is investing in growth stocks. These stocks tend to be fast-growing companies that are disrupting industries, leveraging technology, or tapping into previously underserved markets.

Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Family Office bought 76,100 shares of Meta Platforms and 102,200 shares of Alphabet. They collectively account for 2% of his portfolio. Israel Englander of Millennium Management purchased 793,500 shares of Meta Platforms and 2.2 million shares of Alphabet. They are now his eighth- and fifth-largest holdings, respectively, excluding options.

"OpenAI was the golden child earlier this year, and Alphabet was looked at in a very different light," said Brett Ewing, chief market strategist at First Franklin Financial Services. "Now sentiment is much more tempered toward OpenAI."

I think Alphabet and Microsoft can top that figure by the end of 2026. Here's what my prediction would mean for shareholders: Alphabet is currently worth $3.8 trillion. The stock must increase 29% for the company to achieve a market value of $4.9 trillion. Microsoft is currently worth $3.6 trillion. The stock must increase 36% for the company to achieve a market value of $4.9 trillion.

Alphabet is the parent company of Google, along with several other brands, like YouTube, the Android operating system, and Waymo. It's a fairly wide business, but when you boil it down, most of Alphabet's revenue comes from advertising. In Q3 2025, Alphabet's ad revenue totaled $74.2 billion, with total revenue coming in at $102.3 billion. When the economy and the consumer are fairly strong, advertising is a great business to be in.

the significant increase in our investments in technical infrastructure will continue to put pressure on the P&L in the form of higher depreciation expenses and related data center operations costs such as energy.

If you're heavily invested in tech stocks, you've surely heard concerns that we may be approaching (or in) a bubble. Similar to the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s and the housing bubble in the early 2000s, tech stocks are on fire, and some bears believe they are overheated today. Is that true? I think the concern is overstated, but it's also important to acknowledge that markets sometimes drop. Corrections are nothing new and are, in fact, part of the heartbeat of the stock market.

(( AlphabetNASDAQ:GOOG)( NASDAQ:GOOGL) dominates the search engine market with a greater than 90% share, powering billions of daily queries through Google Search. Yet its growth extends beyond that core business. Google Cloud has captured a rising slice of the cloud computing sector, trailing only NASDAQ:AMZN) and AmazonNASDAQ:MSFT), while investments in artificial intelligence position it as a leader in machine learning and generative AI technologies like Gemini.

The Alphabet cofounders have respectively grown $66 billion and $60.7 billion richer in just under 10 months, outpacing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's $56.8 billion gain and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's $51.9 billion gain. The pair only trail Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison's $150 billion increase. Page and Brin are now worth $234 billion and $219 billion each, ranking them fifth and sixth on Bloomberg's rich list - not far behind Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in fourth with a $250 billion fortune.

Alphabet is helping pay for President Donald Trump's White House ballroom, according to federal court filings. As part of a legal settlement reached last month with Trump, Alphabet, which owns YouTube, is contributing $22 million toward Trump's White House construction plans. Trump sued the tech giant after it suspended his YouTube channel for two years, following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.