Alphabet stock traded lower on Monday, in line with broader market weakness, as investors continued to assess the company's aggressive artificial intelligence investment plans. The parent company of Google and YouTube has delivered strong gains over the past year.
It is the 13F season, where investors get a sneak peek into where billionaires are putting their money.
Alphabet is executing at record levels, with 2025 revenue surpassing $400 billion and accelerating growth across core segments. GOOG's 48% cloud revenue surge and $240 billion backlog justify its $175–$185 billion CapEx plan for 2026, driven by enterprise AI demand. Despite a 29x P/E multiple, GOOG trades at the S&P 500 average yet delivers superior 18% revenue growth and 32% ROIC.
Alphabet delivered a double beat in FQ4, but updated CAPEX guidance for 2026 caused market concerns. These concerns are short-sighted. GOOG's investment in SpaceX and 100-year bond offering illustrates its long-term moat: a dual-track strategy combining robust current income and high-risk bets.
Seth Klarman focuses on undervalued and contrarian companies to buy and hold. He cut his fund's stake in Alphabet by more than 40% last quarter, after the stock zoomed higher on a flurry of good news.
Both of these powerful tech giants have user bases that are measured in the billions, which support their network effects. Impressive sales growth leads to huge profits and free cash flows, enabling them to invest aggressively in AI capabilities.
Druckenmiller is a former Nvidia shareholder -- he sold all of his shares in 2024. At that time, he said he would consider returning to Nvidia at the right price.
In my view, Alphabet delivered the best hyperscaler results in Q4, with Google Cloud revenue up 48% yoy and operating margin expanding to 30.1%. Notably, Alphabet was the only hyperscaler showing both cloud margin expansion vs. the same quarter last year, driven by in-house TPUs, notably the 7th Gen Ironwood. The near-term overhang is CapEx. Alphabet guided $175–$185B in 2026 (vs. $91.4B in 2025), above the $115B consensus, and with the Street's FCF models showing only $24B this year.
Sentiment on the Magnificent 7 and software stocks has been very negative lately, resulting in significant underperformance from these groups. The perceived headwinds for these stocks are tied to developments in the artificial intelligence space, though the nature of those AI connections is different.
Companies that sell advertising were among Friday's gainers after the Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
As more AI companies consider Google's chips, the company wants to use deals with external partners to expand the potential market.
Recently, Zacks.com users have been paying close attention to Alphabet (GOOG). This makes it worthwhile to examine what the stock has in store.