Prediction: Alphabet's Stock Will Be a Winner in 2026

Shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) slid contempt the institution seeing its gross maturation accelerate erstwhile it reported its Q4 results. The banal is inactive up much than 50% implicit the past year, arsenic of this writing.

Will AI make the world's archetypal trillionaire? Our squad conscionable released a study connected the 1 little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the captious exertion Nvidia and Intel some need. Continue »

Let's instrumentality a person look astatine the company's Q4 results, prospects, and wherefore the banal is simply a buy.

Google Cloud, Alphabet's unreality computing unit, erstwhile again led the mode for the artificial quality (AI) leader. Revenue maturation accelerated to 48% (versus 34% maturation successful Q3 and 32% maturation successful Q2) successful the 4th to $17.7 billion, portion conception operating income skyrocketed from $2.1 cardinal a twelvemonth agone to $5.3 billion. Its backlog, meanwhile, climbed 55% to $240 billion.

The institution shocked the concern satellite erstwhile it acceptable a superior expenditure (capex) fund of betwixt $175 cardinal and $185 cardinal for 2026, up from $91 cardinal successful 2025. Alphabet said it volition besides beryllium Apple's preferred unreality computing supplier and assistance the iPhone shaper make its adjacent procreation of AI models.

Google Search gross jumped 17% to $63.1 billion, a continued acceleration from the 15% maturation successful Q3, the 12% maturation successful Q2, and the 10% maturation successful Q1. The institution said hunt queries deed a grounds successful Q4, and that AI is driving usage and the types of searches radical conduct, without cannibalizing accepted search.

YouTube besides continues to execute well, with advertisement gross rising 9% to $11.4 billion. YouTube, on with Google One (cloud storage) and Music, besides helped thrust a 17% summation successful subscription and instrumentality gross to $13.6 billion. Meanwhile, Alphabet's Waymo robotaxi conscionable opened its sixth marketplace successful Miami and continues to expand. It besides conscionable raised $16 cardinal for its robotaxi subsidiary astatine a $126 cardinal valuation.

Overall, Alphabet's full quarterly gross roseate by 18% to $113.8 billion. Earnings per stock jumped by 31% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth to $2.82. The results topped expert statement estimates (as compiled by LSEG), which were looking for EPS of $2.63 connected gross of $111.4 billion.

Alphabet delivered outstanding results and showed that it is going each successful to triumph the AI race. Given that its customized AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), springiness it a outgo advantage, it makes consciousness for it to propulsion each successful portion it has this edge. The institution is getting beardown returns connected its capex spending, some done Google Cloud and different parts of its business, specified arsenic Search. Meanwhile, it has erstwhile again shown that AI is not disrupting its hunt concern but alternatively helping thrust growth.