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Meta just attached a price tag to its AI ambitions, and traders are now asking whether a consumer subscription can justify one of the biggest capital budgets in tech history while a key rival takes an immediate hit.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) put a price tag on its AI buildout Tuesday evening with Muse, a personal AI agent sold through a tiered consumer subscription, and investors moved quickly Wednesday morning. The launch answers the standing bear case that Meta Platforms’ capital spending carried no direct consumer revenue line, and the reaction reads as a company-specific repricing rather than a broader bid for AI names. Overnight endorsements from commerce and startup leaders added credibility to the rollout heading into the open.

Meta Platforms stock is up 6% to $649.20 Wednesday morning, the first meaningful vote for the company’s AI monetization since its July earnings report. Meanwhile, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock is down 2% to $330.53 as investors read Muse as encroachment on Gemini’s consumer agent footprint.

For broader market context, the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) is down 0.5% to $714.55. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.3% to $763.38, confirming today’s move is a single-name story rather than a sector rotation.

Muse Puts a Price on the AI Spend [chart symbol=”META”]

Meta Platforms launched Muse Tuesday evening as a personal AI agent available through a dedicated app and through WhatsApp. Muse can use a browser, run in the background, connect to a user’s existing services, and complete tasks including sending email, organizing calendars, planning trips, filling forms, and making payments. The agent runs on Meta Platforms’ Muse Spark model, which the company said drove a 60% jump in daily interactions with Meta AI after integration.

Meta Platforms introduced paid plans at $20 per month and $100 per month above a free tier, the first direct consumer revenue line attached to its AI buildout. Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer at Meta Platforms, said Muse follows a “principle of least privilege,” with users deciding which connectors are enabled and whether the agent can read or modify data. Shopify (NASDAQ:SHOP) CEO Tobi Lütke and Y Combinator’s Garry Tan publicly praised the launch overnight, positioning Muse as an ecosystem asset rather than a walled-garden play.

The launch matters because Meta Platforms has faced sustained criticism for pouring capital into AI without a subscription line to model against. Meta Platforms reported Q2 2026 capital expenditures of $30.1 billion and guided full-year 2026 capex to $130 to $145 billion, with operating margin compressing to 31% from 43% a year earlier. Muse gives investors the first pricing anchor to weigh against that spend.

Alphabet Slips as the Repricing Stays Company-Specific [chart symbol=”GOOGL”]

Alphabet reported Q2 2026 revenue of $119.8 billion, up 24.2% year over year (YoY), with Google Cloud growing 82% to $24.77 billion and the Gemini App reaching 950 million monthly active users. That’s a strong AI adoption story, yet Alphabet stock is falling today because Muse targets the consumer agent surface Google has been building around Gemini.

Alphabet’s Q2 capital expenditures hit $44.92 billion, its free cash flow turned to negative $5.9 billion, and the company suspended its stock buyback in Q2 2026. Traders want to see who wins the consumer agent race before paying up further for Alphabet stock, and Muse arriving with a WhatsApp distribution footprint compresses that timeline.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Shopify sit adjacent to the story without occupying the same seat. Microsoft’s fiscal Q4 2026 results showed Copilot crossing 30 million paid seats with Azure past $100 billion in annual revenue. Amazon’s AWS grew 37% to $42.23 billion in Q2 2026, with its AI business at a $25 billion annualized run rate (we profiled seven suppliers powering that data-center buildout, from power to cooling, in a free AI infrastructure report). Shopify remains a commerce-AI adjacency, and Lütke endorsing Muse frames it as a distribution partner for merchants rather than a rival.

What to Watch Meta Platforms delivered $60.8 billion in Q2 2026 revenue against that full-year capital budget, and its free cash flow narrowed to $784 million from $8.55 billion a year earlier. A subscription line at those price points has to scale meaningfully before it moves that math. Today’s rally is sentiment moving ahead of evidence.

Meta Platforms stock is down 2% year to date (YTD), so Wednesday’s gain narrows a losing year rather than extending momentum. Investors can watch for early Muse adoption disclosures, WhatsApp attach rates, and any read-through in the Q3 2026 earnings call, when Meta Platforms will need to translate agent engagement into a monetization curve.

Traders weighing their exposure should calibrate their holdings carefully given a Muse thesis that rests on a consumer subscription yet to prove it can offset a capital budget of this size. A moderate position that reflects both today’s monetization catalyst and Meta Platforms’ free cash flow compression is the sensible frame from here.

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Last October, Google said it would bring an Iowa nuclear power plant back from the dead. Now the facility’s owner, NextEra Energy, has received a $1.9 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to finance the refurbishment.

The sizable loan is the second of its kind, suggesting that the Trump administration views revived nuclear power as a key source of electricity for tech companies seeking to power their AI data centers. Last year, the Department of Energy extended a $1 billion loan to Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island.

James Danly, Deputy Secretary of Energy, said that the Iowa power plant’s restart in 2029 will “drive down electricity costs,” though he did not explain how. Just 50 megawatts will be set aside for the local power cooperative, NextEra CEO John Ketchum said during an earnings call last year. That capacity would cover 18% of Iowa’s demand growth since 2021, the year before ChatGPT was released.

Google is reportedly looking to build up to six data centers near the Duane Arnold Energy Center, which hasn’t operated since 2020 when an intense rainstorm damaged the power plant. Rather than repair it, NextEra decided to mothball it. At the time, cheap natural gas was flooding the market, making nuclear power economically unappealing.

A lot has changed in the last six years, though. After decades of little growth in demand, the sudden rise of AI coupled with broader electrification of the economy meant that utilities and power providers were suddenly scrambling to find new generating sources of electricity. New data centers are expected to nearly triple the sector’s electricity demand by 2035.

Shuttered nuclear power plants are becoming one of the tech industry’s favorite choices to quickly provide clean, firm power.

Microsoft signed a deal with Constellation Energy two years ago to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island that last operated in 2019. The reactor is scheduled to restart in 2028 and generate 835 megawatts. 

Another facility in Illinois, Constellation Energy’s Clinton Clean Energy Center, was in danger of closing down before its parent found a new customer in Meta, which is buying all of the clean energy attributes from the 1.1 gigawatt power plant. The arrangement will see Clinton sending its electrons to the local grid, while Meta will use the certificates to offset emissions it is producing elsewhere. The tech giant’s Hyperion AI data center, for example, will need 10 natural gas power plants to operate. If completed, the data center will consume more electricity than all of South Dakota.

Duane Arnold is smaller, but in the process of refurbishment, NextEra will squeeze an additional 14 megawatts from the facility, bringing the total to 615 megawatts.

Altogether, the three power plants represent the lowest hanging fruit in the U.S. There might be one or two more, according to a report from Utility Dive, though those candidates, including San Onofre in California, have been shuttered for longer and would require more work to bring back online.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.

De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing [email protected].

3 Stocks to Buy and Hold for Higher Interest RatesGoogle Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOG is seeing accelerating enterprise demand for its cloud infrastructure, artificial-intelligence products and cybersecurity offerings, citing growth in customer additions, large contracts and cross-selling across its product portfolio.

Speaking at a company conference, Kurian said Google Cloud has more than 17 product lines with annual revenue above $1 billion. He said new-customer acquisition has grown more than twofold year over year, while deals exceeding $100 million have increased more than twofold both quarter over quarter and year over year.

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Morgan Stanley Eyes Good Things Ahead for Meta After $18 Billion Legal SettlementKurian said customers that make commitments to Google Cloud typically spend more than 50% above their initial commitments, which he said reflects adoption and expansion within the existing customer base.

Integrated AI Stack Kurian emphasized Google Cloud’s strategy of offering first-party products across the technology stack, including its own tensor processing units, or TPUs; NVIDIA GPUs; Arm-based processors; Gemini models; data-management tools; security products; and enterprise applications such as Workspace.

3 Stocks Built for Higher Rates—And 2 That Could Break“Some people buy us for silicon, some people use our models, some people use our data platforms,” Kurian said, describing a business model designed to capture revenue through multiple channels as AI monetization evolves.

He said the company offers what it characterizes as 2.7 times better price performance for AI training, 80% better price performance for inference and 30% better price performance for CPUs. Kurian attributed the economics to Google Cloud’s ability to co-design technology across the stack.

Google Cloud’s accelerator business, including TPUs, is more than twice the size of the next-largest hyperscaler’s TPU business, Kurian said. He added that aggregate payback on AI servers is less than two years, while payback on Google’s own silicon is roughly half that period. Most infrastructure contracts are long-term commitments of about five years, he said.

Gemini Enterprise Adoption Kurian said Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise platform is used by more than 90% of the Fortune 100 and by thousands of smaller businesses. The platform is designed to help companies deploy AI agents that can analyze company data, execute workflows, generate content and assist with security tasks.

According to Kurian, 80% of Google Cloud customers use its AI products. Customers using AI use 1.8 times as many Google Cloud products as those that do not, he said, while the company estimates that the five-year lifetime value of a cloud customer using its Gemini portfolio is 1.5 times higher.

Kurian cited use cases including Signal Iduna’s claims and underwriting analysis, PepsiCo’s supply-and-demand planning, and Macy’s retail-commerce activities. He also described Citigroup’s work on a Gemini Enterprise-based wealth-adviser platform that combines an AI avatar, financial-data analysis, security tools and infrastructure designed for real-time streaming.

Google Cloud differentiates Gemini Enterprise by enabling customers to select different AI models for different tasks, rather than relying on a single model, Kurian said. He argued that using multiple models can be particularly important in cybersecurity, where different models may identify different vulnerabilities.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Models Kurian said Google Cloud’s acquisition of Wiz was driven by the growing ability of AI systems to understand software code and system configurations, potentially making them more effective at finding vulnerabilities.

Wiz helps organizations identify applications, assess risk, prioritize systems for review and find vulnerabilities, he said. Google Cloud has also developed a product called CodeMender with Wiz to repair code and test whether vulnerabilities have been addressed.

“You can only defend a threat from an AI model by using a combination of a security platform and an AI system,” Kurian said. He said more than 90% of the Fortune 100 use Google Cloud’s cyber-defense tools.

On infrastructure deployment, Kurian said Google Cloud offers TPU systems through cloud subscriptions, capital purchases for customer data centers and neocloud offerings. He said the company has established a neocloud with Blackstone.

Providing systems in customer data centers can be important for high-performance computing and capital-markets customers that need infrastructure close to large existing data sets or trading venues, Kurian said. Hardware sales can also reduce Google Cloud’s need to fund data-center space and power for those deployments, he added.

Partner and Industry Focus Kurian said Google Cloud is using forward-deployed engineers to work with major customers on industry-specific AI applications, build reusable implementation tools, and develop training and certification programs for partners. He said the company recently announced an agreement with Accenture to build a Gemini Enterprise business group.

Going forward, Google Cloud is concentrating its partnership strategy on eight industries, systems integrators and AI specialists, and data providers. In financial markets, Kurian cited data providers including Bloomberg, FactSet and MSCI as examples of firms whose information is available on Google Cloud’s platform for AI-driven analysis.

About Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)Alphabet Inc NASDAQ: GOOG is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as "Other Bets." Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company's history.

Alphabet's core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company's ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

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Sergey Brin launched Google from a garage nearly three decades ago. Lionel Hahn/Getty Images; BI

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Google's AI destiny is being cooked up in a California kitchen.

On the second floor of Gradient Canopy, a tent-like structure that rises east of Google's Mountain View headquarters, is a microkitchen filled with many of the typical fixings: coffee beans, grinders, an espresso machine, a fridge. Less typical is the U-shaped formation of desks, used by Google cofounder Sergey Brin and a handful of mission-critical leaders who are steering Google through an AI race it can't afford to lose.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai visits the break-turned-war-room several times a week. Employees from other parts of the building sometimes saunter in for an extended snack break, hoping to overhear gossip that could reveal Google's next big move. There are whispers that cofounder Larry Page has been spotted there.

This unlikely nerve center has gained more influence in the weeks since Google shook up its AI leadership.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, who was helping steer the company's AI efforts from London, relinquished his title and became Alphabet's chief scientist. Koray Kavukcuoglu, who moved from London to the US last year and now sits alongside Brin in the microkitchen, was appointed SVP of Google DeepMind, effectively replacing Hassabis. Jeff Dean, Google's longtime chief scientist, left the company after 27 years.

Brin's role in the new power structure went unmentioned.

However, the man who helped launch Google from a garage nearly three decades ago has become increasingly influential over Gemini, eight current and former employees told Business Insider, in part thanks to his unique ability to pull resources for critical work and cut through the tech giant's bureaucracy. The latest changes at the top, some of them said, could give Brin even more sway over Gemini.

It's a role seen by some inside Google as necessary after the 2023 merger of the company's two central AI labs led to friction over the direction of Gemini that slowed progress and prompted a stream of departures. Some of Mountain View's leaders became frustrated with Hassabis and other researchers in London, believing they weren't as pragmatic about making Gemini more competitive to rivals, two people familiar with the matter said.

Up against the corporate machinery of Google, the microkitchen has acted as something of a startup inside the larger company, allowing Brin, Kavukcuoglu, and other leaders to make decisions faster. "The promise of the kitchen is that it can help you cut through the politics," said one former employee familiar with the setup.

Many of Google's top AI researchers work in the Gradient Canopy building.  Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group Such decisions are more crucial than ever. Google has fallen behind the frontier, which is putting more pressure on it to make its next model, Gemini 4, a blockbuster event. The company has lost top talent in recent months, including star computer scientists John Jumper and Noam Shazeer. Against this backdrop, Brin has urged employees to double their efforts on Gemini.

"Demis is obviously very talented, but he's moving farther away, not closer, to the operational part. This glimmer of hope is this notion that Sergey will get more involved," said Gil Luria, head of technology research at the investment bank D.A. Davidson. "They need a big change that will cut through that bureaucracy."

Google declined to comment on this story, and declined to make Brin and other leaders available for interviews.

Letting Brin cookBrin's position is highly unusual.

He no longer holds an executive title at Google, yet he and Page have decisive influence over the company's board due to a special controlling stock.

After he and Page stepped back from running Alphabet in 2019, Brin spent his time building airships, partying at Burning Man, and writing about physics. When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, and Google was suddenly playing catch-up, Brin said the temptation to return to the trenches was just too much. "As a computer scientist I've never seen anything as exciting as all of the AI progress that's happened in the last few years," he said during the All-In Summit in Los Angeles in 2024.

Brin's unique perch inside Google makes him a powerful ally for any Googler who wants to accrue more support for their project or idea. Getting access to Google's chips, even for the Gemini team, can be difficult. The official route is to submit a formal document and get buy-in from higher-ups. Another route is to strike a deal with a different team inside Google to use their chips in exchange for, say, building Gemini features for their products, two people familiar with such arrangements said.

The other, less official route is to go to Brin.

"Koray has more explicit power in the hierarchy, but Sergey is the founder of Google," said a former senior employee. "He's able to cut through bureaucracy and clear red tape in a way no one else can." People who have worked at Google DeepMind said Kavukcuoglu and Brin have a good rapport, and that when Brin wants something done, he will often do it through Kavukcuoglu. However, Brin usually gets his way, three people said.

Koray Kavukcuoglu became SVP of Google DeepMind in the August reshuffle.  Lester Cohen/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Over the past two years, the microkitchen's gravitational pull has grown stronger. Kavukcuoglu moved from London to Mountain View last year and now sits close to Brin. Sebastian Borgeaud, a research engineer, also moved across the Atlantic last year and was appointed to lead work on improving Gemini's coding abilities, two people familiar with the move said. A huddle of desks was set up for the coding strike team inside the microkitchen, close to Brin and Kavukcuoglu, a person familiar with the matter said.

"Sergey wants to run Gemini like a startup," said a former employee with direct knowledge of the arrangement. "If you want to be part of the startup, you have to be in the microkitchen."

Emanuel Taropa, a Google fellow and a legendary name in the AI research community, often sits in the kitchen, two people said. So does Enrique Piqueras, a senior research engineer on Gemini, who insiders described as an especially close ally of Brin's. Another oft-spotted face in the kitchen is Rahul Arya, a physics Olympiad who has played a central role in improving Google's AI chips. Insiders say that Google has made a concerted effort not to publicize some of its most important stars for fear of them being poached.

If you can't handle the heatBrin has largely involved himself in the technical aspects of Gemini, weighing in on discussions about model sizes, release windows, and paths to artificial general intelligence, according to current and former employees. He also got involved in some internal disagreements last year over how Gemini should be integrated into Google products, two people said.

One idea Brin pushed earlier this year was to use software to monitor some Google employees as they coded, believing it could be a useful reinforcement learning technique to improve Gemini's coding abilities, a person familiar with the project said.

At times, Brin has made calls that have frustrated some staff. In 2025, Dean, Google's now-former chief scientist, was leading efforts to build a chip that would embed a version of the Gemini model architecture directly onto the silicon, a project internally codenamed Frozen. The project was unpopular among some Gemini leaders, two former employees said. Brin made the call to cut the project — a decision that frustrated Dean, who told some colleagues around that time he was considering leaving the company, said one of the people who heard the remarks.

The project was later revived as Frozen v2; however, some of its resources were stripped away from it earlier this year, the person added. Dean left Google in August to launch his own startup. He declined to comment on this story.

Jeff Dean left Google in August after 27 years to launch his own startup.  Bloomberg/Getty Images Some employees bristled at a post Brin made in an internal Google DeepMind work channel in 2025, stating that working about 60 hours a week is the "sweet spot" for productivity, which was first reported by The New York Times. One former manager said that they told their employees to ignore Brin's memo.

Earlier this year, during a Q&A session at San Francisco's AGI House, Brin was asked how he was splitting his responsibilities with Kavukcuoglu and Hassabis. Brin said he worked closely with Kavukcuoglu and would often "poke and prod" the teams when he was unhappy with their direction, describing himself as "sometimes a little bit disruptive."

"I'll be honest, I'm a little bit of a rabble-rouser," he said.

Brain trustWhen Google announced in 2023 that it would combine DeepMind with its core Brain AI team, it capped a near-decade journey for Hassabis. Since selling DeepMind to Google in 2014, the Nobel laureate had fought to keep his lab independent, determined to pursue research free of Google's bureaucracy and untethered from products he considered irrelevant to his north star: building artificial general intelligence.

The 2023 merger was evidence to some inside DeepMind that any hopes of exercising independence under Google were misplaced. It was also around this time that Brin began showing up to work on Gemini. While Google said nothing publicly about Brin's return, there were clues. A March 2023 post on LinkedIn showed Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel meeting Pichai, Google's global affairs president Kent Walker, and — wearing sweatpants — Brin.

Google was in wartime mode, but there was also a battle brewing within. Brain and DeepMind had different cultures, three people who worked there at the time said. Brain typically worked more closely on improving Google's products, and teams in DeepMind had focused more on longer-term research that often didn't have near-term commercial viability. "There was tension in the DNA of what DeepMind wanted to be," said a former employee. "Do they want to be a 10-year research bet working on things that make humanity incredible, or are they going to win this 3-6 month horizon race between the labs?"

Demis Hassabis is now Alphabet's chief scientist.  Karl Mondon / AFP via Getty Images In 2023, Kavukcuoglu chose to build Gemini using some of the people and infrastructure behind Chinchilla, a prior language model developed by the London DeepMind team, rather than on Google's PaLM 2. The decision was unpopular with some researchers in Mountain View, who saw it as favoritism toward the London group, two people said.

After Brin returned to the trenches in 2023, he began working in the microkitchen. Taropa, the Google fellow, was also a core founding member of the kitchen office. Over time, more desks were added, and the space became the de facto command center, often referred to by staff as "Sergey's microkitchen." At one point, an overflow space was added because many employees wanted to be closer to what had quickly become the power center of Gemini.

'AGI-pilled'Brin has spent less time in the kitchen in recent months, sometimes showing up on alternating weeks, according to two people who have seen him there. Ahead of a possible new billionaire's tax, the Google cofounder moved some of his personal assets out of California last December and purchased homes in Florida and Nevada.

The measure, if it passes on a November ballot, would impose a one-time tax on California residents with a net worth exceeding $1 billion. Brin, who has mounted a large-scale opposition effort against the tax, could be liable to pay $14 billion if he were considered a resident.

Ahead of the recent leadership shuffle, Brin appeared frustrated with the pace at which Google is moving on Gemini and has pushed employees for more focus on recursive self-improvement (RSI), the point where systems can improve themselves, current and former employees said. "He's very invested in RSI. He's very AGI-pilled," said one former employee. Reuters previously reported on some of Brin's remarks around RSI.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page launched Google out of a suburban Silicon Valley garage in 1998.  JOKER/Martin Magunia/ullstein bild via Getty Images Insiders described the August reorg as a win for the more technical side of the company and the further erosion of DeepMind's independence, underscoring the commercial reality of the AI race. In recent weeks, the company has shown signs of positive progress. It recently rehired Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Labs cofounder, in what some insiders said could be a big win for Google. The company has said its latest Gemini model shows "significant" improvements in coding.

Will it be enough? Google is still bleeding talent. The AI coding software market has fast become crowded, which could make it harder for Google to break in meaningfully, said Luria, the analyst. What Google needs, he said, is a major breakthrough that will vault its models to the state of the art. "Short of that, everything is tactical, and they'll continue to need to catch up," he said.

The September release of ChatGPT's Astra model appears to have pushed the frontier forward again, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has suggested even smarter models are waiting in the wings.

Google needs momentum, and with Brin more involved than ever, some employees are hopeful it will find it. From a garage to a kitchen, Google's most consequential work has a habit of happening in unlikely rooms.

Have something to share? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at 628-228-1836.

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Hugh is a senior correspondent at Business Insider where he writes about Google, tech, and wealth. His work has been cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets.Get an alert whenever I publish a story.Got a tip? You can reach him using the secure messaging app Signal (hughlangley.01) or email ([email protected]). We can keep sources anonymous.

Cathay's ultra-long-haul trial gives Alphabet a climate showcase, although commercial terms remain undisclosed. Summary

More than 80 flights tested technology targeting a major source of aviation warming.

Alphabet GOOGL, Google's search, cloud and artificial-intelligence powerhouse, expanded its contrail-fighting AI program with Cathay Pacific Monday. More than 80 flights in the initial trial delivered an estimated 40% reduction in contrail-related warming. U.S. markets were closed, leaving Alphabet at its previous closing price of $335.31.

The partnership takes Google's technology into Asia-Pacific and, for the first time, onto ultra-long-haul routes. Its platform blends satellite images, weather intelligence and AI-generated forecasts to flag atmospheric zones where pilots can change altitude and reduce persistent contrail formation.

Alphabet's latest quarter generated $119.8 billion in revenue, with Google Cloud contributing $24.8 billion. The chart shows Alphabet trading 32.75% above its $252.58 GF Value estimate, signaling that investors already expect plenty from its AI ambitions. Cathay disclosed neither a contract value nor a commercialization plan, making this a sharp demonstration of real-world AI utility—but not yet a meaningful revenue engine.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

Click for the complete disclosure

Billionaire Bill Ackman runs Pershing Square, one of the 20 most successful hedge funds in the world as measured by net gains since inception, according to LCH Investments. That makes him a good source of inspiration for individual investors

Ackman made a number of trades in the second quarter, but the two listed below warrant closer inspection:

Ackman sold his stake in Alphabet (GOOGL -1.11%) (GOOG -1.05%), an AI stock up 100% in 18 months.Ackman started a position in Netflix (NFLX -5.35%), a mega-cap stock down 42% from its record high.Here's what investors should know about Alphabet and Netflix.

Bill Ackman speaks at an event for the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance. Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet reported strong financial results in the second quarter despite missing estimates on the bottom line. Revenue rose 24% to $120 billion, marking the 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit  growth. Meanwhile, GAAP operating income (which eliminates unrealized gains from its investment in SpaceX) increased 31% to $41 billion.

Alphabet is primarily a digital advertising company supported by a plethora of popular web properties, such as Google Search and YouTube. Advertising products and services still account for more than two-thirds of total revenue, but cloud computing has become an increasingly consequential part of the big picture.

Google Cloud revenue rose 82% in the second quarter, the fifth consecutive acceleration, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. For the first time, the company earned revenue by selling custom AI accelerators called tensor processing units (TPUs) to external customers, representing an attempt to compete more directly with the market leader Nvidia.

Meanwhile, CEO Sundar Pichai said Gemini APIs (i.e., interfaces that let outside companies integrate Gemini models into their own applications) now process about 22 billion tokens per minute, up from 16 billion one quarter earlier. Pichai also said 90% of Fortune 100 companies use Gemini Enterprise, an AI platform for business work.

In total, Google gained two percentage points of market share in cloud infrastructure and platform services in the past year, and custom chips and proprietary models could certainly drive further share gains in the future. Google Cloud is running circles around its two largest rivals, Amazon and Microsoft, which reported cloud revenue growth of 37% and 43%, respectively, in the most recent quarter.

So, why did Bill Ackman sell his shares? While Alphabet is well-positioned for long-term growth, it faces near-term headwinds related to AI infrastructure spending. In the second quarter, Alphabet reported negative free cash flow for the first time as a public company. It also raised its 2026 capex guidance to $200 billion, up from $91 billion last year.

Negative free cash flow could make the stock volatile as bulls and bears squabble about whether the company is spending too much money on AI infrastructure. Indeed, the stock fell sharply following the second-quarter earnings report, and still trades 2% below the pre-report level as of Sept. 4.

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Netflix: The stock Bill Ackman boughtThe streaming industry has become much more crowded over the last decade, but Netflix is still the dominant player by virtually every important metric. It has more monthly active users, generates more revenue, boasts better retention rates, and accounts for a larger percentage of TV viewing time than any other subscription streaming service.

In turn, Netflix has a data advantage. With deep insight into viewing behavior, the company has an edge when personalizing content and making production decisions. Indeed, Netflix consistently produces more engaging content than its rivals. Among the 10 most-watched original streaming series and movies in the final week of August, Netflix made four of the series and six of the movies.

Netflix is down 42% from its high in June 2025, primarily because the market is worried about the company's growth prospects after it failed to win bidding wars for Warner Bros. Discovery and Roku. However, I think the market is underestimating Netflix. The company has pricing power in the streaming space, a market forecast to grow at 10% annually through 2030, and it has largely untapped opportunities in advertising, live sports, and theatrical releases.

Wall Street estimates Netflix's earnings will increase at 21% annually over the next three years. That makes the current valuation of 24.7 times earnings look cheap. Indeed, most analysts view the stock as undervalued. Netflix has a median target price of $94 per share, which implies 20% upside from the current share price of $78. Patient investors should feel comfortable buying a small position today.

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Image Credits:Google Google is launching conversational AI features within Docs, Gmail, and Keep that let users ask questions about their inboxes and documents as well as do tasks using natural-language queries and dictation.

The company previewed these features in May during its Google I/O conference. The company is dubbing these features Docs Live, Gmail Live, and Keep Live.

In Gmail, instead of typing in a search box, you can ask questions to a Gemini-powered AI assistant about the contents of your inbox. Users will see a live transcript while chatting with the assistant.

While using Docs, users can describe what they want to write, and the AI assistant will help them create a first draft. It can also get information from Gmail, Drive, chat, and the web to create drafts.

Keep Live, meanwhile, lets you use it as a scratchpad to jot down notes without typing, and can even pull together recipes and lists if you tell it to, for example, list ingredients to make a shakshouka.

Gmail Live is available for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra customers. Docs Live and Keep Live are available for Google AI Pro and Ultra users. All these features will be available in English on iOS and Android. Google said it will roll out these features to Workplace Business customers soon.

Google has been introducing voice-based features across its apps. It added cross-app dictation to its Mac app in April. And the Pixel 11 smartphones got a Gemini-powered dictation tool called Rambler last month, which removes filler words from your speech. In August, the company introduced the Gemini 3.5 Transcribe model for speech-to-text use cases.

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Sundar Pichai promised investors a flagship AI model by June, but what arrived instead has sparked Alphabet's longest stock losing streak in over a decade, raising an uncomfortable question about whether the company's celebrated AI pace is actually working.

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Alphabet’s cadence problem finally has a price tag. CEO Sundar Pichai said Gemini 3.5 Pro would arrive in June, but it still hadn’t shipped as of September 2, 2026. What Google shipped instead was Gemini 3.8 Flash, a cheaper coding model, while pointing investors to Gemini 4 later in the year. That substitution has landed at the worst possible moment for the stock.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG | GOOG Price Prediction) shares are “on their longest losing streak since 2015,” according to CNBC’s Mackenzie Sigalos, following a brief stint this spring as the world’s most valuable company. The stock is down 10.39% over the past month, trading near $339.79 after opening green on Wednesday.

[chart id=”GOOG”]

A Promised Flagship, a Value-Tier Delivery On the Q2 call, Pichai stayed on message about pace. “Gemini 3.5 Pro is currently in testing and our team is already building the next generation of models,” he told analysts, adding that “we have started our most ambitious pre-training run yet for Gemini 4.” He framed monthly releases as strategy: “Picking up pace and releasing models, you know, almost at a monthly cadence is part of our roadmap as we are building Gemini 4 as well.”

The problem is what the pace produced. The June flagship is absent. The Flash line, which Pichai called Alphabet’s “workhorse model” hitting “a sweet spot of performance, cost, reliability, latency, etc.”, keeps arriving on schedule.

Fundamentals That Argue the Other Way The financials show a company still expanding at scale. Q2 revenue rose 24.23% to $119.8 billion, EPS of $9.11 beat consensus by 199.41%, and Google Cloud grew 82% year over year to $24.8 billion with backlog at $514 billion. The Gemini App now has 950 million monthly active users, and APIs process approximately 22 billion tokens per minute, up from 16 billion a quarter ago.

The bill is steep. Capex hit $44.9 billion, free cash flow swung to negative $5.86 billion, long-term debt jumped from $46.5 billion to $98.2 billion, and buybacks were suspended in Q2 2026. Even so, GOOG trades at a P/E of 14.

[company_earnings_history ticker=”GOOG”]

Two Same-Day Offsets Investors Should Weigh Two developments arrived alongside the Gemini 3.8 Flash release. First, a judge ruled that “google will not have to sell its ad exchange”, removing an overhang on the ad monetization engine that Sigalos noted lets “Google compete more aggressively on price because it owns more of the stack and can monetize AI across cloud search and youtube and its ad engine.” Second, token prices are “down more than half from their summer peak, squeezing standalone model labs like openai.”

The accountability gap is real. So is the moat. Whether four down months mark a dip or a re-rating depends on what ships before Gemini 4, and on whether the $44.9 billion capex line keeps translating into cloud backlog rather than stranded silicon (we profiled seven suppliers riding that same buildout, from power to cooling, in a free report you can grab here).

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

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Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE +18.75%), a grid-scale long-duration battery storage systems provider, closed at $3.61, up 18.75%. The stock climbed following a collaboration between Alphabet's (GOOG +0.53%) (GOOGL +0.63%) Google and MN8 Energy. Investors are watching project spending and execution. Trading volume reached 73.1M shares, coming in about 184% above its three-month average of 25.7M shares. Eos Energy Enterprises IPO'd in 2020 and has fallen 64% since going public.

How the markets moved todayThe S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.46%) closed at 7,667, up 0.47%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +0.45%) closed at 26,218, up 0.45%. Among electrical equipment and grid-scale battery energy storage systems peers, Fluence Energy (FLNC +1.34%) closed at $10.56, up 1.34%, while Stem (STEM -0.55%) closed at $5.43, down 1.09%.

What this means for investorsThe collaboration among the three companies will be owned and operated by power platform MN8 Energy, which will use Eos Energy's zinc-based and lithium-ion storage energy solutions to power Google's data centers. In a press release, MN8 went on to explain:

The integrated portfolio adds new clean, dispatchable capacity to the grid serving Google's data centers in the region, including a planned project in West Virginia. The solar project is expected to reach commercial operation in 2028, with lithium-ion storage and long-duration storage following in 2029 and 2030, respectively.In less than a year, EOSE stock has plummeted from $18 to $3.61 amid earnings misses, a lack of progress toward profitability, and manufacturing delays, but today's news may offer a lifeline for the once-promising energy storage company. That said, Eos has burned $422 million in FCF while earning $214 million in sales over the last year, so it is far from out of the woods, even with this deal. Investors should be prepared for volatility if they are interested in the stock, as equity and debt raises will be likely.

Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Fluence Energy. The Motley Fool recommends Stem. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Alphabet is Berkshire's third largest equity holding Summary

Greg Abel said Berkshire negotiated a 6.5% discount on its initial $10 billion Alphabet stake, taken 15 months ago before the Q2 additions.

Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B chief executive Greg Abel told CNBC on Wednesday that the conglomerate's initial $10 billion Alphabet GOOGL position was taken at a 6.5% discount, a term he said he recommended himself. Abel described discussing both the size and the discount with Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) before the transaction closed 15 months ago. Alphabet was up 0.14% premarket.

Abel tied the decision to what Berkshire sees inside its own operating companies. "We have a lot of visibility from within our companies as to how we're using AI," he said, adding that Google looked like a significant player. Berkshire added $17 billion of Alphabet shares during the second quarter, the largest single addition to its portfolio in the period.

Alphabet is now Berkshire's third largest equity holding. The company held roughly 106 million Class A and Class C shares as of its last filing, worth about $36.6 billion. Berkshire also raised its Delta Air Lines DAL position by 44%, or roughly $1.6 billion, in the same quarter.

Disclosures I am/we currently own positions in the stocks mentioned, and have NO plans to sell some or all of the positions in the stocks mentioned over the next 72 hours.

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A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Google must make changes to address its advertising technology monopoly but would not need to break up that business, as the company staved off the most extreme measures to curb its power.

The judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, issued her decision after finding last year that Google broke the law to protect its dominance over the largely invisible system of technology that places ads on pages across the web.

Judge Brinkema, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, did not publicly reveal her full opinion, but previewed it in a short filing. She said Google must still adopt some changes to its ad tech business, according to an entry on the public docket for the lawsuit.

The court said Judge Brinkema had granted “most” of the changes proposed by both parties to Google’s business practices that the Justice Department and Google had proposed, which included sharing more information with publishers.

The changes fall short of forcing the company to sell off parts of the business, which the government had requested.

The decision ensures that Google’s power over the internet will be largely unchanged as it moves to dominate a technological era defined by artificial intelligence. Despite two federal court rulings in major government lawsuits declaring the tech giant a monopolist, the other in search, judges have failed to order significant structural changes to its $4.1 trillion business.

Instead, Google has forged ahead, gaining ground in the A.I. race against younger competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. It has woven the technology into its products, including its signature search engine, and poured billions of dollars into the construction of data centers that power the technology.

The ruling by Judge Brinkema is another sign that the federal government’s attempts to rein in the power of the biggest tech companies has faltered. After another judge found that Google had an illegal monopoly in its search business, critics of the company panned his remedies in the case as weak.

The Federal Trade Commission lost a case last year claiming Meta created a monopoly in personal social networking by acquiring its nascent rivals Instagram and WhatsApp. Federal antitrust lawsuits against Amazon and Apple are expected to go to trial in the coming years.

The government filed the ad tech lawsuit — U.S. et al. v. Google — in 2023 over an intricate network of programs that sell ad space around the web, like on a news site or a recipes page. The suite of software, which includes Google Ad Manager, conducts split-second auctions to place ads each time a user loads a web page.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit accused the company of holding a monopoly over every part of that system: the service that publishers used to host ad space, the software advertisers use to bid for that space and the technology that connects both sides of the transaction.

Government lawyers argued at a three-week trial in 2024 that Google’s dominance allowed the company to take a larger cut of every ad sale than would have been possible in a free market. Google countered that it did not hold a monopoly because its ad business competed against the sale of ads on apps like TikTok and on connected televisions.

Google’s lawyers also argued that the government’s case ran afoul of two Supreme Court precedents from recent decades. One, from 2004, said that monopolists are not obligated to deal with their competitors. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that courts must consider “two-sided” markets differently in antitrust cases.

Judge Brinkema agreed with the government that Google possessed a monopoly over the tools used by publishers and the technology that connects those publishers with advertisers. But she said the government had failed to prove that Google broke the law when it came to the tools used by advertisers.

Her decision, which Google has said it plans to appeal, triggered a hearing last year over how to best remediate the company’s monopoly.

Over two weeks, government lawyers argued that only a breakup of Google’s ad technology would do the trick. They asked Judge Brinkema to force Google to sell the software that facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers of ad space, known as an ad exchange.

They also demanded that Google be forced to make public the computer code that powers its tools for publishers, and for the judge to reserve the option to make Google sell the rest of those tools if competition did not improve.

Google said the judge should not break the company up and should instead force it to change its behavior. That would include changing policies that publishers say entrenched the company’s dominance in ad tech, and sharing more information with publishers about how its ad auctions work.

A breakup, the company argued, would take too much time. It would also imperil small publishers, which rely on Google’s scale and customer service to sell ads on their sites, the company said.

The massive capital expenditures (capex) of hyperscalers such as Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL -1.10%) (GOOG -0.88%) have sparked both optimism and concern from investors. The company has said it intends to lay out up to $205 billion in capex this year. That figure reflects management's optimism about artificial intelligence, but such high spending also carries risk.

If these investments fail to pay off, it would cause considerable pain to a cash-rich company like Alphabet. Nonetheless, I believe the potential for growth justifies that spending. 

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Alphabet and capex Alphabet's strong move into AI has cost it an eye-popping amount of money. That figure of up to $205 billion for 2026 comes on top of $91 billion in capex spending for 2025. Also, even though Alphabet claims more than $242 billion in liquidity, it has assumed more than $114 billion in debt since the beginning of 2025, a level that would have been unthinkable before its AI data center spending spree began in earnest.

Earlier in the decade, Alphabet struggled following the so-called "ChatGPT moment," as many investors feared the chatbot and similar platforms would render Google Search -- its cash-cow advertising business -- obsolete. However, the company leveraged its resources to catch up on consumer-facing AI, and now, few can question that the Google parent has regained its reputation as a leader in the space. Gemini has emerged as one of the leading AI platforms, and its AI products now reach over 2.5 billion monthly users through Google Search's AI Overviews.

Alphabet also uses AI to improve the effectiveness of Google advertising, which grew revenue by 14% year over year in Q2.

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The benefits go well beyond the $82 billion that the ad business generated. One of the more notable gains is Google Cloud. The $25 billion it generated in the second quarter of 2026 increased by 82% year over year. In Q2 2025, Google Cloud's revenue rose only 32% year over year, a robust, but more modest, increase.

Furthermore, Alphabet can probably afford this spending, even if it somehow turns out to be a mistake. Over the trailing 12 months, the company generated more than $53 billion in free cash flow, excluding capex.

This stands in contrast to hyperscaler peer Amazon, which has sent its free cash flow into negative territory with its heavy capital expenditures. Also, after years of generating tens of billions of dollars in free cash flow annually, Meta Platforms generated only $784 million of it in Q2, indicating that its free cash flow may turn negative soon.

Hence, despite its borrowing, Alphabet's competitive position suggests it can afford its AI-driven capex, and it may even emerge above key competitors as a result.

Alphabet looking forward Ultimately, the scale of the AI opportunity appears to justify Alphabet's massive spending.

Admittedly, with its debt overhang, the Google parent could face significant pain if its AI investment fails to yield the returns it was banking on. However, growth in enterprises like Google Cloud indicates that investments have boosted its revenue. Additionally, free cash flow remains positive, which stands in contrast to two key hyperscaler competitors.

Thus, no matter what happens amid the AI data center build-out, the tech company should emerge from this spending spree in a stronger competitive position.

A top Wall Street analyst is sounding the alarm on a fast-growing OpenAI revenue stream that targets the exact same advertiser budgets powering Alphabet's most profitable business.

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OpenAI’s advertising business is still tiny compared with Google Search, but D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria says the growth trajectory should have Alphabet investors paying attention.

Luria told CNBC on Monday that OpenAI’s advertising business has reached roughly a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, up from about $100 million just six months ago.

That’s still a tiny fraction of Google’s Search advertising business, but Luria warns OpenAI’s ad business will likely take pieces of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction) existing market share rather than create new incremental demand.

OpenAI’s Ad Run Rate Has Jumped From $100 Million to $1 Billion Google Search remains the dominant intent-based ad surface on the internet. Alphabet reported Google Search & other revenue of $63.27 billion in Q2 fiscal 2026, up 17% year over year. Luria’s estimate is that Google’s search advertising will generate roughly $250 billion this year.

“Google’s search advertising will maybe be $250 [billion] this year. So $1 billion starts taking little bits of share. And let’s not forget that was $100 million run rate just six months ago,” Luria said. In his view, OpenAI is in a position to have an advertising business in the tens of billions, which could start to pose a threat to Alphabet.

Why Google Search Is the Most Vulnerable Ad Budget Luria argues that a ChatGPT ad is the closest existing substitute for a Google Search ad because both reach a user at the moment of active information-seeking with clear intent. “Buying an ad on ChatGPT is the most equivalent to buying Google Search,” he said, adding that share will come “mostly from Google Search, because that’s the most equivalent ad from the ad buyer’s perspective.”

However, Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts that “Since expanding AI mode globally last October, we have surpassed 1 billion monthly active users” and that the Gemini App has 950 million monthly active users. Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said Google “continues to be encouraged with monetization performance on queries that show AI Overviews, even as we’ve expanded overviews to more commercial queries.”

So Alphabet is fighting back against the increased competition from OpenAI.

Finite Attention Puts YouTube and Meta in the Fight As Well Luria also drew a line between the enterprise AI market, which he treats as expandable, and the consumer ad market, which he called more zero-sum. “The consumer segment is finite because we only have so many hours in the day, and advertisers can only catch us to the extent that we’re engaged,” he said. If time shifts into AI conversation, it comes out of traditional media, social media, and YouTube, making Google doubly exposed through Search and YouTube.

Meta (NASDAQ:META) sits on the other side of that finite-attention pie. The company reported Q2 Family of Apps ad revenue of $59.4 billion, up 27% year over year, with ad impressions up 14% and average price per ad up 12%. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “On a dollar basis, our Ads business is reporting faster year-over-year revenue growth than any other company’s reported ad business.“

Key Takeaways OpenAI’s $1 billion advertising run rate is still small next to Google Search. The risk for Alphabet is the trajectory and the similarity of the product: both platforms monetize users actively looking for information. If ChatGPT advertising grows into the tens of billions, Luria argues Google Search could be the first place those dollars come from.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock fell more than 2% Monday as broader weakness in mega-cap growth stocks coincided with fresh scrutiny over Google’s 260 million pounds U.K. app-store settlement.

The Nasdaq declined 0.23%, the S&P 500 fell 0.45% and Communication Services dropped 1.2%.

• Alphabet shares are experiencing downward pressure. Why are GOOG shares declining?

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, agreed to pay 260 million pounds ($352,294,800) to settle a U.K. class action accusing Google of charging excessive commissions to developers distributing apps through the Google Play Store.

The lawsuit alleged Google abused its dominant market position by imposing unfair fees on developers whose apps run on Android devices.

Alphabet reached the agreement before a 10-week trial scheduled to begin next month. The company did not admit liability, and the Competition Appeal Tribunal must still approve the settlement.

UK Developers Could Receive 160 Million PoundsIf approved, about 160 million pounds will go to U.K. developers, while the remaining 100 million pounds will cover litigation funding, legal fees and other expenses, the Financial Times reported Friday.

Legal academic Professor Barry Rodger, who led the case, had sought as much as one billion pounds in compensation. He called the settlement a "great deal" and said it could provide meaningful compensation to businesses that could not have challenged Google individually.

Thousands of developers could qualify for payments, ranging from 200 pounds for the smallest businesses to several million pounds for some larger developers.

Alphabet held approximately $242.47 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of June 30, 2026.

UK Keeps Pressure on Big Tech App StoresAlphabet said it was pleased to reach an agreement with developers and reiterated its commitment to supporting the U.K. developer community.

The settlement marks a notable outcome for the U.K. class action system, where many cases against major technology companies have struggled to generate significant payouts.

It also follows a separate victory for claimants against Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), after the Competition Appeal Tribunal found last year that Apple charged excessive fees to developers distributing software through its App Store.

Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price forecast of $436.25. Recent analyst moves include:

JP Morgan: Overweight (Lowers target to $420 on July 23) TD Cowen: Buy (Maintains target to $475 on July 23) Oppenheimer: Outperform (Lowers target to $400 on July 23) Top ETF Exposure State Street Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLC): 8.78% Weight Motley Fool 100 Index ETF (BATS:TMFC): 8.46% Weight iShares Global Comm Services ETF (NYSE:IXP): 9.85% Weight Significance: Because GOOG carries such a heavy weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock.

GOOG, GOOGL Price ActionAlphabet (GOOG) shares were down 2.36% at $334.80 and Alphabet (GOOGL) shares were down 2.28% at $338.68 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Photo: Alphabet on a smartphone, Sundar Pichai against a Google background via Shutterstock

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© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Marvell shares dropped 10% after announcing what may be its most valuable customer agreement ever, and the gap between what traders feared and what the contract actually says is where the opportunity lives.

At $216.62, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL | MRVL Price Prediction) looks mispriced on the data. The stock shed 10.28% on an earnings beat, with selling driven by a misreading of the expanded Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) custom silicon agreement despite solid fundamentals.

Marvell designs connectivity, custom silicon, and switching for modern AI data centers. Data Center now accounts for 79% of total revenue, up from 74% a year ago, growing 46% year over year in the July quarter.

Q2 FY2027 delivered $2.739 billion in revenue, up 36.55% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $0.94. Management disclosed a warrant letting Google acquire up to 7% of Marvell shares as purchase milestones are hit. Traders sold the dilution headline and ignored what those milestones represent.

Google Warrant Works Like a Purchase Order The commercial agreement ties equity to Marvell silicon purchases, potentially generating up to $120 billion in cumulative custom revenue for Marvell through fiscal 2033. That scope covers custom AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, and memory controllers, so Marvell need not unseat Broadcom‘s (NASDAQ:AVGO) flagship TPU to capture tens of billions in buildout spend.

Management expects custom revenue to more than double year over year in fiscal 2028 and step higher in fiscal 2029. FY2027 revenue guidance was raised to roughly $12 billion, and FY2028 growth lifted to about 50%. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded 180 basis points year over year to 36.6%, with a 38% to 40% target range by fiscal Q4.

Bear Case Risks to Weigh Marvell trades at 60x forward earnings with a beta of 2.246, after a 181.09% one-year run. Data Center is 79% of revenue, with a handful of hyperscalers dominating the mix. Any customer shifting to in-house silicon or rivals could snap the growth curve. That same buildout has to be powered, cooled, and networked by someone, and we profiled seven of those suppliers in a free AI infrastructure report.

Long-term debt sits at $4.963 billion, non-GAAP gross margin drifted to 58.9%, and Q3 guidance calls for a step down to 57.5% to 58.5% as custom mix rises. Reddit sentiment flipped bearish, and every senior officer shows dispositions rather than open-market buys, including a 7,500-share CEO sale on August 17.

Reasons to Wait Before Committing The stock rerated from the $72 range after the March 2026 earnings miss to $216.62 now. An Investor Day on October 6, 2026 could reset the long-term operating model and provide a firmer FY2029 custom number. Waiting carries real option value, especially with the second-half custom ramp still unproven.

Valuation and Analyst Targets Wall Street’s consensus target sits at $278.89, implying meaningful upside from $216.62. Of 43 analysts covering the name, ratings skew strongly positive.

Strong Buy: 8 Buy: 30 Hold: 5 Sell: 0 Shares carry a forward P/E near 60, a trailing P/E of 80, and a PEG of 1.426. Year to date the stock is up 155.27% against the S&P 500.

Why the Selloff Is the Setup At $216.62, Marvell Technology looks mispriced on the data. The Google warrant only converts if Marvell delivers, aligning Google’s equity upside with Marvell’s revenue upside. CEO Matt Murphy told analysts to assume “starting in FY29 beyond whatever you’ve modeled previously prior to the warrant for Custom Numbers definitely goes higher”, describing the full opportunity as “just a monster number.”.

Near-term catalysts include the fiscal Q3 earnings report showing custom acceleration, the October 6 Investor Day resetting the long-term model, and connectivity strength in 1.6T optics and 51.2T switching. Marvell’s Q1 FY27 print showed a similar negative day-one reaction followed by a 54.48% one-week gain and a 45.43% thirty-day gain.

The thesis breaks if custom revenue fails to double in FY2028, if a hyperscaler cancels a program, or if gross margin falls below the 57.5% floor. Keep an eye on the stock through the October Investor Day and fiscal Q3 report.

When the market punishes a company for signing its largest customer to a multi-year purchase commitment, the mispricing usually corrects.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction platform, puts the probability of no new Gemini Pro release before 30 September at 69%.

Every specific launch date on the market trades in low single digits, with 28 September the next most favoured outcome at 8%.

The bet centres on Gemini 3.5 Pro, the model Sundar Pichai promised developers would arrive within a month at Google's I/O conference on 19 May.

That deadline has come and gone three times over. The model missed targets in June, mid-July and early August, and as of late August still has no model identifier, no pricing and no launch date.

Google DeepMind's own models page continues to list it as coming soon. The hold-up is technical. Google has fallen months behind because it has been trying to improve the model's capabilities, particularly in coding.

The company reset and updated its training data in late June to fix the code-generation problems, only for internal results to disappoint again.

The delay carries a competitive cost. Google engineers and researchers are reported to be concerned that the company risks losing its edge as Anthropic and OpenAI ship models that outperform Gemini.

Rivals have not stood still. OpenAI launched its GPT-5.6 family in July, and Elon Musk's Grok 4.5 opened to the public in the same window.

Anthropic, meanwhile, has rolled out its Fable 5 model. Rather than rush the Pro release, Google has filled the gap with cheaper, faster models.

It has shipped a run of Flash models, with Gemini 3.7 Flash reaching general availability on 13 August.

The awkward result is that the strongest Gemini model users can currently call is not a Pro model at all.

Google has also confirmed it has begun pre-training an entirely new flagship, Gemini 4. That has fuelled speculation that the company may effectively skip ahead rather than salvage the delayed release.

Traders appear unconvinced a fix is imminent. A related Polymarket contract puts the chance of no Pro model by 1 November at roughly even.

Alphabet (GOOG +0.59%) (GOOGL +0.69%) CEO Sundar Pichai shared a notable statistic at the company's June 2026 investor presentation: AI Overviews now has 2.5 billion monthly users. That kind of reach makes Google Search one of the most powerful monetization channels for artificial intelligence (AI).

"Our AI investments are redefining what's possible across every part of our business," Pichai said on the company's second-quarter earnings call.

The massive reach helps explain why Alphabet generated $81 billion in ad revenue in the second quarter, up 14% year over year. The company's ability to turn Search into massive cash flow -- and reinvest it into chips and data centers -- is why Alphabet remains a compelling way to ride AI's growth.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Image source: Alphabet.

AI has supercharged Google's advertising revenue The strong growth in ads shows that high engagement with AI Overviews is improving advertiser returns. The company revealed that users who engage with AI features search more often, helping to drive record query volumes. The growth in search queries generates more behavioral data to improve user experiences and ad quality, which fuels the revenue engine.

The momentum in advertising is pushing Alphabet to accelerate the deployment of Gemini -- the AI that powers Overviews -- deeper into its advertising business. That spells more growth.

The company is also continuing to push the boundaries of what's possible with Search. "We are continuing to incorporate more frontier capabilities into Search with agents, personal intelligence, and notebooks," Pichai said during the Q2 earnings call.

These are meaningful signals for investors, since advertising still accounts for about two-thirds of Alphabet's total revenue.

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A solid stock for the long term The scale of Alphabet's advertising revenue is providing enormous resources for AI infrastructure, which isn't cheap. Alphabet's capital expenditures totaled $136 billion over the trailing 12 months, and management expects another notable increase in 2027. That pace of spending will pressure near-term free cash flow.

The stock is currently trading 16% below its prior high, as market participants weigh the cost of AI on near-term profitability. But those same investments are also strengthening Search and potentially widening Alphabet's moat.

Importantly, Google's cash from operations has climbed to $185 billion on a trailing-12-month basis, supported by growing advertising revenue, improving Google Cloud margins, and lower costs to generate AI Mode responses in Search.

Alphabet is demonstrating that its AI investments are translating into strong revenue growth while also improving compute efficiency, which could be beneficial for long-term free cash flow growth. This is all possible because it has a massive user base to monetize. This puts Google in a strong position to deliver long-term returns to shareholders.

India has directed Google to shut down hundreds of accounts on its Firebase web development platform after finding a pattern of criminals misusing the ​service to impersonate major banks and defraud people, according to government notices and a source familiar with the matter.

Online scams have become one of ‌India's most pressing law enforcement challenges, with Indians losing nearly $2.4 billion in alleged cyber fraud in 2025, according to government data. For years, the government has gone after scammers by ordering their websites removed.

Of late, however, Indian officials have noticed a "pattern" that scammers are using the Google's app and website development tool Firebase, which has millions of users the world over, according to the source with direct knowledge of the ​matter.

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has directed at least 57 websites and databases that were hosted on Firebase be taken down in August alone, saying they ​were being used to distribute malware and steal sensitive financial information from victims' phones, according to three notices sent to Google and ⁠reviewed by Reuters.

There was no suggestion in the notices that Google or Firebase were in any way responsible. However, Google can be held liable for the named links if ​they are not taken down within three hours of the notice being issued.

"Android-based malware programs are masquerading as legitimate banking services, specifically targeting Android users with credit cards. Scammers lure victims ​by promoting offers such as new credit cards, reward redemptions, or credit limit upgrades," I4C said in an August 17 notice to Google, directing the removals.

The source added the total number of notices sent to Google over Firebase ran into dozens in recent months, without sharing an exact number.

Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) Google said in a statement the company has "strict policies prohibiting the use of our services for phishing, malware, or financial ​fraud" and works with law enforcement, including I4C, to evaluate and act on notices.

Representatives for India's home (interior) ministry, which controls the I4C, did not respond to questions.

BOOMING DIGITAL USE
Firebase ​is used by millions of developers worldwide to build apps and host websites. It is part of Google's cloud business, which generated nearly $25 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter.

Scam operators have ‌been migrating to ⁠Firebase from other free tools since last year, drawn by generous free options and more capable database features, the Indian government has assessed, the source said.

Scammers are increasingly targeting India's booming digital payments ecosystem. Nearly 242 billion digital transactions were processed through India's real-time payments system alone in the year to March 2026, making it one of the world's largest digital payments markets.

Reuters reviewed three government notices sent by I4C to Google in August, accessed through Lumen, a non-profit database where companies like Google voluntarily submit content removal requests they receive.

"ANDROID ​GOD MODE"
Seven of the 57 websites and databases ​asked to be removed were phishing ⁠pages created using Firebase that mimicked top Indian banks, including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. The remaining were what the government agency said were websites created to collect data stolen from victims' phones, including credit card details and one-time passwords.

The three ​banks did not respond to queries from Reuters.

The fraud described in the notices worked by getting victims to install apps that looked ​like legitimate banking services.

One ⁠scheme exploited by scammers was PM-KISAN, a federal government programme that pays small farmers roughly 2,000 Indian rupees (about $21) every four months, according to a fourth notice and the source with direct knowledge.

Websites allegedly promised recipients help in claiming their payment, asking them to download an app to redeem the money.

Then, the app sends the user's data to the scammer's Firebase database, effectively leading to ⁠a hack ​of the phone where scammers can access other downloaded apps and defraud customers of their funds.

The government issued ​one public advisory in March, without naming Firebase, but raising concerns about such malware, widely called "Android God Mode" by cybersecurity researchers, a term describing the near-total control over victims' phones.

"These malicious apps often impersonate trusted services such as ​banking, government and utility platforms, and trick users into installing them through links," the advisory said.

($1 = 95.7300 Indian rupees)

For 2026, Alphabet (GOOG -1.02%) (GOOGL -1.14%) management projected the tech giant would spend $175 billion to $185 billion on capital expenditures, mostly for data centers. That turned out to be a bad estimate, as Alphabet has raised its guidance range each quarter and now expects to spend between $195 billion and $205 billion this year.

The market may see rising spending plans as a red flag, but I don't see it that way. If you look at Alphabet's latest results, one metric shows that this spending is well worth it, and Alphabet is likely making the right move by increasing it.

But what does that mean for investors? Let's take a look.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet is approaching the AI arms race from two directions Alphabet hasn't placed all of its chips on one bet in the artificial intelligence (AI) world. Instead, it has spread them out. It has bet on itself to develop strong AI models and applications internally, and has used some of its computing capacity to pursue that goal. However, it has also built up its cloud computing division, allowing other AI firms to build and create competing models to Alphabet's own. Regardless of which bet works out (they both may be smart moves), Alphabet is assured it will make money from this generational shift.

The primary way this is showing up in Alphabet's financials right now is in its cloud computing division, Google Cloud. During the second quarter, Google Cloud's revenue rose at a jaw-dropping 82% pace, posting an impressive 36% operating margin. That kind of growth blows away all the competition, and with Alphabet increasing its capital expenditure guidance, it shows there's a lot more demand to meet.

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This bodes well for Alphabet's future, as cloud computing is less dependent on the economic cycle than its advertising business is. By diversifying Alphabet away from ads, it's becoming a more balanced company. Additionally, with AI and computing demand growing far faster than the advertising market, Alphabet is investing heavily where it sees the highest growth potential, a smart move by management.

With Alphabet making smart moves by investing in the fastest-growing sector around, I think it's a great stock to buy. It may take several years for Alphabet's cash-generating state to return, as it has already indicated that 2027 spending will be far higher than in 2026. But I think the long-term benefit of building out a sprawling cloud computing network will far outweigh the costs.

Alphabet is a top AI winner to buy a stake in now. Even if you've missed out on it so far, now is not too late to reverse course and take a position.

Prediction market traders now see little chance that Google releases its next flagship Gemini Pro artificial intelligence model before September, underlining a delay that has dragged on for most of the year.

On Polymarket, the largest betting exchange for real-world events, contracts give just a 2% chance of a release by 21 August and 10% by the end of the month, with the latter down 35 points.

The odds do not clear 50% until 30 September, priced at 47%, and reach 71% only by 31 October.

More than $1.1 million has been wagered on the market, making it one of the busier technology contracts on the platform.

The pessimism reflects a troubled development cycle for Gemini 3.5 Pro, the model most traders are watching.

Sundar Pichai, the Alphabet chief executive, told developers at Google's I/O conference in May that the model would arrive within a month.

That deadline passed, as did a widely reported July target, in what has become the company's third delay since June.

Google has instead shipped a series of cheaper, faster Gemini Flash models, releasing another version on 13 August without giving any date for the Pro edition.

Reports have pointed to persistent problems with coding performance and reliability, alongside the departure of senior researchers from its DeepMind AI unit.

The company is thought to have rebuilt the model from its foundations after it fell short of internal quality benchmarks.

Rivals have pressed their advantage during the gap, with OpenAI's GPT-5.6 and Anthropic's Claude models shipping on schedule.

The stakes are high for Alphabet, whose shares fell more than 4% in July after Bloomberg reported the setback, wiping out roughly $200 billion in market value.

For now, the current flagship remains Gemini 3.1 Pro, which dates back to February.

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The three biggest cloud computing providers all closed the same quarter on June 30 and reported it within about a week of one another in late July. The growth rates were not alike.

Alphabet (GOOG -0.05%)(GOOGL +0.06%) said Google Cloud revenue rose 82% year over year to $24.8 billion. Microsoft (MSFT +0.27%) reported 43% growth in Azure and other cloud services for the period, the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2026. And Amazon (AMZN -0.71%) said Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue climbed 37% to $42.2 billion.

That last number is strong on its own. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy described the quarter as the unit's "fastest growth in 18 quarters." So the largest cloud provider just posted its best rate since late 2021 -- and still grew at less than half Google Cloud's pace.

What's driving a gap that wide?

Image source: Getty Images.

Google Cloud keeps speeding upThe 82% is not a one-quarter spike. Google Cloud grew 63% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, and its $24.8 billion second quarter compares with $13.6 billion in the same period a year ago. The unit is accelerating even as its base compounds.

Profitability is scaling faster still. The segment's operating income more than tripled year over year, from $2.8 billion to $8.8 billion, lifting its operating margin from about 21% to about 36%. That kind of margin expansion tells me the growth isn't being bought with discounts.

The demand signals stretch years out, too. Google Cloud's backlog (contracted work not yet recognized as revenue) reached $514 billion in the second quarter, after nearly doubling quarter over quarter to more than $460 billion in the first. At the unit's current revenue pace, that comes to about five years of work already signed.

"[W]e continue to be supply constrained -- a sign of momentum and rapid adoption," CEO Sundar Pichai said on Alphabet's second-quarter earnings call.

As for what's behind the demand, Alphabet's release credits growth across enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, AI infrastructure, and core Google Cloud Platform services. Pichai said nearly 90% of the Fortune 100 now use Gemini Enterprise. And existing Google Cloud customers, he said, are "expanding their usage and exceeding their commitments by more than 50%."

Same dollars, different basesOf course, percentages flatter a small base, and Google Cloud is still the smallest of the three. Its $24.8 billion quarter compares with $42.2 billion at AWS. Measured in new dollars added versus a year ago, though, the two are nearly even: Google Cloud added about $11.1 billion of year-over-year revenue in the quarter, and AWS added about $11.4 billion.

Azure sits between them in size. Microsoft doesn't disclose the segment's quarterly dollars, but CEO Satya Nadella said Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the fiscal year that ended in June. Google Cloud's second-quarter pace annualizes to about $99 billion -- roughly the scale Azure just crossed. A year ago, Google Cloud ran at about half that scale.

Microsoft's contracted book is the biggest of all. Its commercial remaining performance obligations reached $678 billion, up 84% year over year, though that figure covers Microsoft's whole commercial business, not just Azure.

Can the rate hold?Not at 82%. Next year's rate will be measured against this year's $24.8 billion quarter instead of last year's $13.6 billion one, and a base that compounds this fast works against its own growth rate.

But demand doesn't look like the limiting factor. After all, the backlog equals about five years of revenue at the current pace, and customers are outrunning their own commitments.

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Alphabet is spending to catch up, too. Its capital spending hit $44.9 billion in the quarter, roughly double a year earlier. That outlay pushed free cash flow to negative $5.9 billion for the period.

Sure, contracted work converts gradually (Alphabet expects just over half the backlog to become revenue within the next 24 months), and the supply constraints Pichai flags may cap how quickly that happens. But the signed demand arguably gives the growth an unusually long runway for a business this size.

Overall, the ranking looks less strange up close. Google Cloud is seeing the same AI demand as its larger rivals, on a smaller base, and it is converting a record backlog into revenue about as fast as it can add capacity.

I don't expect 82% again this time next year. But the demand already under contract can, I think, keep the unit growing faster than its two bigger rivals for a while.

17.8.2026 16:22

Americký konglomerát Berkshire Hathaway a hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management zveřejnily čtvrtletní zprávu 13F.

Berkshire Hathaway Americký konglomerát Berkshire Hathaway, v jehož čele stojí Greg Abel, pokračoval v nákupech akcií společnosti Alphabet, a to jak třídy C, tak třídy A. Akcií třídy C přikoupil 23,6 mil., přičemž celkově konglomerát drží 27,19 mil. akcií v hodnotě 9,61 mld. USD, což představuje 3,21% podíl v portfoliu.

Akcií Alphabetu třídy A přikoupil Berkshire Hathaway 24,54 mil. Počet držených akcií této třídy tak navýšil o 45,2 % na 78,79 mil. Celková hodnota akcií třídy A v portfoliu činila 28,16 mld. USD, což představuje 9,41% podíl v portfoliu.

Berkshire rovněž v uplynulém kvartálu pokračoval v nákupech akcií Macy's, Delta Air Lines, Lennar Corp. a The New York Times. Nově konglomerát nakoupil akcie rezidenční developerské společnosti D.R. Horton.

Naopak Berkshire prodal celou svou pozici ve společnosti Constellation Brands. Významně redukoval své pozice v Capital One Financial, Nucor a Kroger. Prodával rovněž akcie Ally Financial, Bank of America a DaVita.

Pershing Square Capital Hedgeový fond Pershing Square Capital Management, který vede Bill Ackman, nakupoval v průběhu 2Q akcie Howard Hughes Holdings, přičemž počet držených akcií této společnosti navýšil o 47,7 %. Hodnota celkové pozice činila na konci kvartálu 1,99 mld. USD.

Ackman v průběhu 2Q navýšil také pozici v Uberu, když přikoupil 4,37 mil. akcií. Uber se tak stal největší akciovou pozicí v portfoliu Pershing Square.

Pershing Square navyšoval rovněž své pozice ve společnostech Meta Platforms, Restaurant Brands International a Microsoft. Nově vstoupil do společností Visa, Mastercard, S&P Global a Netflix, do kterého se fond po dřívějším odprodeji své pozice vrátil.

Naopak Pershing Square prodal celé své pozice v Alphabetu, a to jak v akciích třídy A, tak třídy C. Fond rovněž redukoval své pozice ve společnostech Amazon, Brookfield a Hertz.

Zdroj: Dataroma

Jakub Němec, Fio banka, a.s.

For Alphabet (GOOG -0.12%) (GOOGL -0.13%), I think there's one metric that defines the entire stock: Its cloud computing growth rate. In Q2, Google Cloud revenues grew at an incredible 82% pace. That's about double the pace its cloud computing peers are growing at.

I think this showcases that Alphabet's platform is rising as one of the best available, and if it keeps this growth up, it could push the stock to new heights. I think that adds up to make Alphabet stock a great buy, particularly now, while it's still down by more than 10% from its all-time high.

Image source: Getty Images.

Google Cloud's growth rate isn't done accelerating What makes Google Cloud's Q2 growth rate of 82% so impressive is how quickly it has accelerated. In Q1, it was 63%. In Q4 2025, it was 48%, and in Q3 2025, it was 34%. That's some rapid acceleration, and I think there's a pretty easy explanation for it.

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Alphabet has been spending big on data center infrastructure over the past few years, but those outlays really ramped up in 2025. As the resulting computing capacity came online throughout the year and into 2026, it allowed Alphabet to convert more of its cloud backlog into growth. Last month, Alphabet increased its capital expenditure guidance range for 2026 by another $15 billion to $195 billion to $205 billion, around double 2025's levels.

GOOG Capital Expenditures (TTM) data by YCharts.

This will extend its rapid growth rate well into 2027, but I think that trend could last for several more years beyond that. During Q1's conference call, Alphabet's management team informed investors that 2027's capital expenditures would be "significantly" higher than 2026's. That showcases that the company perceives that there's still massive unmet demand, and that will allow Google Cloud's revenue growth rate to stay elevated.

Another catalyst that's coming later this year and into 2027 is the sales of its custom AI chips, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). TPUs are incredible computing units and can outperform GPUs on a cost basis as long as the workload is properly configured and within the narrow range of workloads they are designed for. They were designed in-house by Google in collaboration with Broadcom (AVGO -5.94%), and adding sales to external customers to the results from its already booming computing unit will add fuel to the fire.

Over the next few quarters, I wouldn't be surprised to see this business unit post triple-digit percentage growth rates, which will boost Alphabet's business overall. This makes Alphabet a great stock to consider buying now, as it's just beginning to benefit from one of the greatest growth catalysts it has ever experienced.

Alphabet (GOOGL -0.13%) (GOOG -0.12%) shares have crushed the market in the past 10 years. They have produced a total return of 759% since August 2016 (as of Aug. 13). Given that incredible past performance, investors might be inclined to always give this business the benefit of the doubt.

This perspective is being tested right now, however. The Sundar Pichai-led technology enterprise reported negative free cash flow (FCF) for the first time in its public history.

Here's why this milestone matters for shareholders.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

The spending is showing no signs of slowing Alphabet's capital expenditures (capex) totaled $53 billion in 2024 and $91 billion in 2025. The management team raised its spending forecast when the business announced second-quarter financial results on July 22. This year, capex is projected to come in between $195 billion and $205 billion, as significant investments are being made to build artificial intelligence (AI)-related compute capacity.

During Q2, capex was $45 billion, up 100% year over year. This resulted in Alphabet posting a negative FCF of $5.9 billion in the three-month period.

From a financial perspective, this is a business that has become unfamiliar to longtime shareholders. Alphabet has historically been a capital-light enterprise. It collected cumulative FCF of $343 billion from 2021 through 2025.

Now, it has become a capital-intensive and cash-burning company. Alphabet has even tapped equity and debt markets to raise sizable amounts of capital to fund the AI build-out, a move that many investors probably thought was unthinkable before. At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising to see the business generate negative FCF for all of 2026 and 2027.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Image source: Alphabet.

But pressured FCF could prove to be a temporary headwind in the name of long-term gains. "I do think it feels like we are in very early innings of what feels like a secular shift across multiple areas," Pichai said on the Q2 2026 earnings call about the opportunity to serve consumers, enterprises, and developers. He also mentioned how the business is "working off a disciplined ROIC framework."

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Say hello to the new Alphabet The biggest takeaway for shareholders is that Alphabet carries higher financial risk today. This is obvious. While the company is surely well-positioned in the AI race, with its full-stack operating model, investors want to have greater visibility into the kind of returns they can expect from all the spending. This is an unprecedented capex cycle that's happening across the industry.

Share repurchases were Alphabet's primary method of returning capital to investors. These have been put on pause, with no buybacks in the first six months of 2026. This is a notable reversal from $108 billion in total repurchases in 2024 and 2025.

Alphabet's stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.3. This is an attractive valuation, but critics might view this methodology as being misleading.

On a price-to-FCF basis, the multiple skyrockets to 79. This showcases the valuation relative to true cash profits, which have fallen precipitously. Prospective investors who are eyeing this AI stock need to understand Alphabet's new reality.

For most investors, earnings season is the pinnacle of each quarter. The six-week period during which most S&P 500 companies report their quarterly operating results provides invaluable information for investors.

But a strong argument can be made that quarterly Form 13F filings can be equally important. These filings detail which stocks Wall Street's brightest money managers purchased and sold in the latest quarter. The catch is that "money managers" also includes businesses with sizable investment portfolios, such as Alphabet (GOOGL -0.08%)(GOOG -0.18%).

Image source: Getty Images.

When most investors hear the Alphabet name, they think of Google, which holds a virtual monopoly in global internet search, and Google Cloud, the world's No. 3 cloud infrastructure service platform by total spend. But when it comes to investments, Alphabet has proven to be the Warren Buffett of Wall Street.

Google's SpaceX investment has gone parabolic Looking in the rearview mirror, Google acquired streaming platform YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion. Today, YouTube is the second-most-visited social site on the planet, behind only Google, and as a stand-alone entity, it might fetch a valuation of $500 billion (or more).

However, Google's investment in Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) (SPCX +9.65%) may give YouTube a run for its money.

Google initially invested around $900 million in SpaceX in January 2015. At the time, SpaceX was being valued at $12 billion, netting Google a roughly 7.5% stake in the company.

Following several rounds of additional financing, this initial 7.5% stake has been diluted, but to what extent remained a mystery -- until now.

GOOGLE $GOOGL JUST UPDATED ITS STOCK PORTFOLIO

This is everything Google owned as of the end of Q2

SpaceX $SPCX: 551,189,500 shares
Planet Labs $PL: 35,248,893 shares
AST SpaceMobile $ASTS: 8,943,486 shares
CME Group $CME: 3,484,020 shares
ARM Holdings $ARM: 1,960,784 shares... pic.twitter.com/s1hiDUXr81

-- Evan (@StockMKTNewz) August 7, 2026 On Aug. 6, Alphabet filed its 13F with regulators covering its second-quarter trading activity. Given that SpaceX went public on June 12, Google's parent company is now required to include its SpaceX holdings in its quarterly 13F.

As of the end of June, Alphabet revealed a 551,189,500-share stake in SpaceX, worth $94.18 billion, which comprised 95% of its investment portfolio. According to Alphabet's second-quarter filing, $80 billion of this position is subject to short-term sale restrictions, with the remainder restricted through the third quarter of 2027.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet has a knack for spotting deals As of the closing bell on Aug. 7, Google's initial investment in SpaceX has increased in value by more than 8,000% -- and there's more where this came from.

In addition to striking it rich with SpaceX, Google was an early investor in Anthropic, the developer behind the Claude large language models. Alphabet gobbled up a 10% stake in Anthropic in April 2023, pledged another $2 billion (with $500 million upfront) later that year, and announced $40 billion in add-on investments (with $10 billion upfront) in April 2026.

GOOGLE'S INVESTMENTS SHOULD BE STUDIED.

Google owns 7% of SpaceX and 14% of Anthropic, two of the biggest IPOs in history, both listing this year.

$900 million invested in SpaceX in 2015 is now worth $126 billion, a 140x return.

$13 billion invested in Anthropic is now worth... pic.twitter.com/JtF4qEyovm

-- Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) June 2, 2026 Alphabet is estimated to hold a 14% stake in Anthropic. Despite its total investment in the brainchild behind Claude adding up to less than $13 billion, Alphabet's stake in Anthropic may be worth in excess of $120 billion.

Alphabet has a virtual monopoly on global internet search traffic, has seen Google Cloud sales go parabolic following the integration of artificial intelligence solutions, and has a cash pile that nearly all businesses would envy. But its penchant for making winning investments may be its defining trait.