If you haven't been paying attention to Alphabet Inc. (Ticker: GOOG, GOOGL), it's time to wake up.
The search giant's stock has climbed 7.7% year-to-date, with its market capitalization holding firmly above $4 trillion, making it a standout performer among the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks in 2026.
In contrast, shares of AI chip leader Nvidia have experienced a slight decline this year.
Veteran trader and TD Ameritrade founder, Tom Sosnoff, stated on Yahoo Finance's "The Opening Bid": "I think Google has a real shot at ending the year as the world's most valuable company." Currently, Nvidia holds the top spot with a market cap of $4.52 trillion.
Alphabet is demonstrating strong confidence, positioning itself as a top contender to win in the 2026 AI race.
The company just secured a major partnership with Apple—its Gemini AI model and cloud technology will provide the underlying tech for the smartphone giant's next-generation AI products. Speaking of large language models, the Gemini 3.0 model, which surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT in performance last fall, continues to be regarded as the benchmark in the field.
Concerns about the profitability of Google's search business in the AI era have subsided as the company aggressively rolls out AI Overviews within its search platform. Meanwhile, revenue from YouTube remains robust.
Bank of America analyst Justin Post suggests that Alphabet has more positive catalysts yet to be realized.
The implementation of new partnerships and a wave of AI company initial public offerings could lead Wall Street to further appreciate Alphabet's differentiated AI asset portfolio, with related benefits potentially being reflected in the stock price. Additionally, factors such as "improved monetization efficiency from AI-powered search results," Gemini and AI chips driving stronger-than-expected cloud growth, and new opportunities from the agentic AI ecosystem could also propel the stock higher.
Post wrote in a report: "Google is well-positioned in AI, with more major AI IPOs on the horizon. Given Alphabet's leadership across large language models (Gemini), infrastructure (TPUs), user reach (Search), and enterprise applications (Cloud, Workspace), we remain positive on the outlook for Alphabet."
Post rates Alphabet as a "Buy" with a $370 price target, implying roughly 10% upside from current levels.
The clear catalysts and underlying momentum for Alphabet's stock are evident. Furthermore, if Wall Street revises its earnings per share estimates upward, the stock could climb even higher.
Data from Yahoo Finance shows that, despite Alphabet's businesses firing on all cylinders, Wall Street's average EPS estimate for 2026 has seen almost no increase over the past 60 days. Over the last 30 days, 11 Wall Street analysts have raised their EPS estimates for Alphabet, but the overall average increase has been modest.
Evercore ISI tech analyst Mark Mahaney noted in a report: "Fundamentally, we believe Google Search and YouTube revenues can sustain solid double-digit growth (with a potential for a slight near-term acceleration) for the foreseeable future; Google Cloud revenue growth can re-accelerate to over 40%; and Waymo's robotaxi service will accelerate its rollout across multiple cities. The positive financial impact is the potential for sustained 20%+ EPS growth, which we believe can support a 25-30x P/E multiple, suggesting reasonable upside from current levels."
Mahaney rates Alphabet as "Outperform."
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