Alphabet (GOOGL) stock surged 5% in pre-market trading on Monday, building on last week's gains as investors cheered the company's artificial intelligence breakthroughs and strong business momentum. The Google parent has now surpassed Microsoft to become the third-largest U.S. company by market capitalization.
The rally comes on the heels of Google's launch of Gemini 3, its latest large language model that reportedly outperformed OpenAI's ChatGPT and other competitors in academic and scientific reasoning tasks. This technological advance, coupled with Google Cloud's multi-million dollar deal with NATO to provide AI-enabled sovereign cloud capabilities, has bolstered confidence in Alphabet's AI strategy and future growth prospects.
Analysts have responded positively, with Arete Research raising its price target on Alphabet to $300 from $220 while maintaining a Buy rating. The stock's strong performance has made it a clear winner among mega-cap tech companies in the AI race, with shares up 58% year-to-date. As Alphabet continues to demonstrate its AI prowess and secure high-profile partnerships, investors appear increasingly optimistic about the company's ability to monetize these technological advancements across its diverse business segments.
