Google's Challenges with AI and Break-up Calls

Google is facing challenges from generative artificial intelligence and break-up calls. The U.S. government has proposed remedies to break Google's hold on search, causing the stock to fall. Competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft are posing a threat to Google's dominance. The rise of generative AI could potentially impact Google's advertising business. Despite these challenges, Google is expected to survive and emerge as a winner.

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- AveniteAvenite
  ·11-23
  It will fall lower until the case is finalized.
  Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%
  Google is under attack. Alphabet stock will still emerge a winner.Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google -- and hit it hard -- when it put forward remedies to break Google's hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence -- computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language -- which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft in a way that Yahoo!and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses -- and so does its stock.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI,
  Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%
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- AveniteAvenite
  ·11-23
  It will fall lower until the case is finalized.
  Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%
  Google is under attack. Alphabet stock will still emerge a winner.Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google -- and hit it hard -- when it put forward remedies to break Google's hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence -- computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language -- which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft in a way that Yahoo!and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses -- and so does its stock.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI,
  Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%
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  Like
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Despite these challenges, Google is expected to survive and emerge as a winner.","image":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/1201dcc0482be040348fb8d4f228bb68","type":2,"style":4,"follow":false,"createTime":1732254327762,"userCounts":0,"rnLink":"https://laohu8.com/RN?name=RNTheme&page=/theme/special/finance&rndata={\"themeId\":407baecc7f93f9d14500ac314c08d740}&rnconfig={\"headerBarHidden\": true}","subscribe":false,"allowFollow":false,"hasReward":false,"rewardScore":0,"rewardValidDate":0,"rewardEnd":false,"symbols":["GOOG","GOOGL"],"tweetCounts":1,"categoryId":"2929bb7468f5415f853fd96fb35d7c3b","options":[],"votedOptionId":"","totalUserCount":0,"followStatus":false,"themeName":"Google's Challenges with AI and Break-up Calls","tweetAmount":1,"imageIsDefault":true},"tab":"all","isFinancial":true,"allList":[{"id":374077719253104,"gmtCreate":1732337007319,"gmtModify":1732337011384,"author":{"id":"4101299314304390","authorId":"4101299314304390","name":"Avenite","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/b7cb9f66c2dfcd97ff88a4cdff7fe2ed","crmLevel":5,"crmLevelSwitch":1,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"4101299314304390","authorIdStr":"4101299314304390"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"It will fall lower until the case is finalized.&nbsp;","listText":"It will fall lower until the case is finalized.&nbsp;","text":"It will fall lower until the case is finalized.","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/374077719253104","repostId":"2485040093","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"2485040093","kind":"highlight","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Dow Jones publishes the world’s most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.","home_visible":0,"media_name":"Dow Jones","id":"106","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99"},"pubTimestamp":1732261389,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2485040093?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2024-11-22 15:43","market":"fut","language":"en","title":"Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2485040093","media":"Dow Jones","summary":"Google is under attack. Alphabet stock will still emerge a winner.Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google -- and hit it hard -- when it put forward remedies to break Google's hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence -- computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language -- which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft in a way that Yahoo!and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses -- and so does its stock.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, ","content":"<html><head></head><body>Google is under attack. GOOGL stock will still emerge a winner. Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google—and hit it hard—when it put forward remedies to break Google’s hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence—computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language—which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MSFT in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses—and so does its stock. Alphabet, however, is more than up to the task of defending itself. Since going public in 2004—at a split-adjusted $2.13 a share—Google has navigated the shifting terrain of the internet, including the transition from desktops to mobile phones, with relative ease. While the future will be more complicated, generative AI has the potential to add revenue, as Gemini, Google’s AI tool, ramps up and becomes more powerful. While the government’s attempt to break Alphabet apart could be an overhang, it appears to be reflected in the stock, which is the cheapest of the Magnificent Seven and even cheaper than the S&amp;P 500 index. Even as that future unfolds, the company’s search business remains dominant—and cash-generating—and that is unlikely to change, even as the way people find information does.“I don’t see betting against Google,” says Jason Browne, president of Texas-based investment advisory firm Alexis Investment Partners.For two decades now, Alphabet has been a winner. Its advertising business generates more than $250 billion annually, while Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, easily surpassing AAPL ’s iPhone in users. Following the lead of AMZN and Microsoft, Alphabet moved into the cloud, which is expected to generate $58 billion in revenue for the company next year. At the same time, though less talked about than TikTok, YouTube has become the planet’s No. 1 content delivery platform, with viewers watching more than a billion hours daily.The rivers of cash generated from all of its units—some $435 billion over the past decade—have allowed Google to indulge in what it calls its “other bets,” including Waymo’s self-driving car initiatives and Google Fiber broadband internet, money-losing businesses that investors simply ignore. And it’s all tied together by Google’s search engine, creating an aura of invincibility and inevitability.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, with the ability to scrub the net and provide easy, if sometimes dubious, answers, opens up a new possibility for accessing data—and a new threat to Alphabet’s dominance. Users no longer have to type questions into Google’s search bar and scroll through links. Now they can type in a question and get an answer. ChatGPT was mind-blowing when it arrived—and an immediate success. “It was the fastest [growing], most exciting app that has ever hit the market,” says Futurum Group CEO and technology researcher Daniel Newman, who noted that it reached 100 million active users just two months after its launch. Perplexity, launched a month after ChatGPT, has grown to 15 million monthly active users and recently launched a shopping assistant, allowing users to type in a question, get an answer, and execute a transaction. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, calls the company’s tool an “answer machine,” one that gives users the information they need versus just giving them links. Perplexity answered about 425 million questions over the past 30 days, up from 500 million in all of 2023. Ultimately, the company hopes to create an all-in-one app, where users can act on what they have learned and never have to leave. These changes seem ominous for Google. Follow them to their logical conclusion and it isn’t hard to imagine traditional search fading away and the market fragmenting, with consumers one day communicating with their devices via an AI-generated custom interface. In February, technology research firm Gartner projected that total search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026. There’s only one problem with those dire predictions—the data don’t back them up. Microsoft was the first mover, putting ChatGPT into Bing, while boldly claiming that taking 1% of search market share would translate to $2 billion in incremental revenue. “Microsoft took no share,” says Futurum’s Newman. What’s more, Alphabet’s October earnings report showed no signs of a search slowdown. It easily topped earnings and sales forecasts, while revenue from its cloud business gained 35%. But it was search that was perhaps the most surprising. Anyone who visited Google recently noticed that the service often provides an AI-generated summary of the findings, as well as a list of links. Investors had worried that would mean fewer links and ads, but management appeared optimistic about its ability to make money from those searches.“We still have no idea how they’ll really monetize AI or other innovations, but the perceived ‘threats’ (OpenAI, Meta AI, Perplexity, and upcoming Meta and OpenAI search) will have to wait, as Google Search growth of 12% beat estimates modestly,” writes Melius analyst Ben Reitzes. Alphabet has something going for it that OpenAI, which has a partnership with NWSA , the owner of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, and Perplexity don’t—it’s a moneymaking business. The two start-ups are still in the early stages of their business development and aren’t profitable. How they ultimately monetize their businesses—and whether they can successfully do it—remains to be seen. Perplexity is also being sued for not paying for the content it feeds into its large-language models, or LLMs, something that could ultimately force it to change how it operates. (Dow Jones is one of the companies suing Perplexity.)While the upstarts try to figure things out, search should keep growing. Media investment and data-services provider GroupM projects that search advertising revenue will grow more than 6% in 2025, up from about 5% in 2024, with about 5% average annual growth through the decade’s end. It isn’t that people like to click through a list of links produced from a query, but that AI-assisted search will produce better results, leading to more questions and further searches. Rather than being a paradigm shift like the switch from desktop to mobile, AI search may be a new format for answers, says New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon. “[It’s] more akin to the integration of images, maps, and other forms of content beyond the original text links,” he explains. Salmon rates Alphabet stock a Buy with a $213 price target.     The advent of AI is also likely to create new types of search and novel ways to earn money from sifting through information. There is the traditional ad-supported version—now with AI summaries—that Google dominates, and premium tools are available by subscription. There are even tools being created for individual companies, such as GE ’sChatGPT-powered Wingmate, which uses LLMs to provide relevant answers to the questions from the company’s engineers based on design and operating manuals. Now, imagine every company in the S&amp;P 500 doing the same thing. “Search behavior already moved to a dual revenue stream: subscriptions and ads,” Salmon says.<img src=\"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/dbb663d732217d6d4f55b5a9d696adfd\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" tg-width=\"770\" tg-height=\"513\"/>Alphabet is playing in both pools. Google One has over 100 million subscribers, and its premium version includes Alphabet’s highest-level AI functionality for $20 a month. ChatGPT’s premium product has about 10 million subscribers, Salmon estimates. Alphabet also has the advantage of experience, including years of work with its Google Brain and DeepMind AI projects and its internally developed Tensor AI hardware. And it recently purchased character.ai for $2.7 billion to help with these efforts. It has the advantage of $154 billion in operating cash it is expected to earn in 2025 as it gets ready to spend $59 billion on its AI future, similar to what Microsoft spends a year. That spending should pay off. Salmon estimates that generative AI overviews and subscriptions keep Alphabet’s Google business growing at about 10% a year on average through 2027. “New AI features in search are resulting in better engagement and higher levels of user satisfaction,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, adding that structural risks to Google’s search dominance are overblown. Wedbush rates Alphabet shares a Buy and has a $210 price target.  AI might not be able to slow Google down, but the antitrust risk is real, as this past week’s decline demonstrates. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, saying that Google illegally monopolized search. This past week, the DOJ proposed a list of remedies that include selling the Chrome browser, prohibiting the ownership and control of anything that creates a preference for Google, and “restoring competition through syndication and data access”—essentially requiring the company to provide its core search index to anyone who wants it to label as their own free of cost.“We view many of the DOJ’s recommendations to restrict Google Search (and other products) as unlikely to be approved by the court, or to survive an appeals process,” writes Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who rates the stock a Buy with a $205 price target. “Beyond the reasonable ask to prohibit search distribution agreements, the DOJ remedies are, in our view, a wish-list of restrictions on Google that stray well beyond the court’s ruling.”Alphabet is fighting the ruling, but other cases loom, including one the U.S. has brought against the company over its advertising business. Appeals are likely to delay any action until 2027 at the earliest. In October, President-elect Donald Trump came out against a Google breakup in favor of making it more fair.Some changes will be offset. An end to Alphabet paying companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine could mean a loss of market share. But the company spends billions annually on search acquisition costs, including some $20 billion to Apple in 2022, according to court filings. The impact of lower revenue and expenses could, in theory, result in a near-negligible hit to earnings per share, according to Wolfe Research analyst Shweta Khajuria.Alphabet stock appears to reflect these antitrust concerns. It trades for 19.4 times earnings, below the S&amp;P 500&#39;s 22 times and Meta Platforms&#39; 22.9 times. &#34;The stock is already reflecting that risk,&#34; says Putnam Investments&#39; Ellen Hazen, who comments that her firm would consider adding to its existing position if it falls back to about $170.Oakmarket Select portfolio manager Bill Nygren goes even further. He argues that Alphabet, with a market value of $2.1 trillion including cash and debt, is worth more than the sum of its parts. &#34;Forcing investors to recognize the value of each [business] would probably make the stock go up,&#34; he says.An analysis of those individual parts bears that out. Alphabet&#39;s cloud business, which could generate roughly $20 billion in 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, would be worth $325 billion at a 16 times multiple, similar to what Amazon and Microsoft fetch. YouTube would be worth up to $800 billion if it traded at 22 times Ebitda, the average of what Meta and Netflix change hands for.Waymo is a little harder to value. Uber Technologies is valued at $150 billion, while Wall Street valuations for Tesla&#39;s self-driving business range from $100 billion to trillions, even though the company has yet to complete a single fully autonomous ride. Alphabet&#39;s Waymo completes 150,000 self-driving cab rides each week, making it a real self-driving player. It is reasonable to value it at about $300 billion, though some bulls think it&#39;s worth far more than that: Deepwater Asset Management&#39;s Gene Munster put Waymo&#39;s valuation at $350 billion to $850 billion by 2030 and expects a spinoff in the next two to four years.That leaves Alphabet&#39;s search business worth roughly $550 billion, adjusted for its $117 billion in net cash and investments, or about five times Ebitda. Nygren, who doesn&#39;t include Waymo, calculates that Google Search trades at about 11 times earnings. That is enough of a margin of safety for him, given what Alphabet is facing.As for upside, it&#39;s easy to justify a $260 stock price for the company based on the sum of its parts, up 55% from Thursday&#39;s close. Or Alphabet could be recognized as one of the world&#39;s dominant tech companies. Getting back to its historical premium relative to the market implies that Alphabet shares would trade for about 26 times earnings and be worth about $234 a share, up 40%. &#34;We think of it as a high-multiple tech stock that isn&#39;t [priced] like one,&#34; says Nygren.For Alphabet, AI isn&#39;t the end of the line -- it&#39;s the next step to a brighter future.</body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nGoogle Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<div class=\"head\" \">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\nDow Jones \n2024-11-22 15:43\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body>Google is under attack. GOOGL stock will still emerge a winner. Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google—and hit it hard—when it put forward remedies to break Google’s hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence—computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language—which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MSFT in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses—and so does its stock. Alphabet, however, is more than up to the task of defending itself. Since going public in 2004—at a split-adjusted $2.13 a share—Google has navigated the shifting terrain of the internet, including the transition from desktops to mobile phones, with relative ease. While the future will be more complicated, generative AI has the potential to add revenue, as Gemini, Google’s AI tool, ramps up and becomes more powerful. While the government’s attempt to break Alphabet apart could be an overhang, it appears to be reflected in the stock, which is the cheapest of the Magnificent Seven and even cheaper than the S&amp;P 500 index. Even as that future unfolds, the company’s search business remains dominant—and cash-generating—and that is unlikely to change, even as the way people find information does.“I don’t see betting against Google,” says Jason Browne, president of Texas-based investment advisory firm Alexis Investment Partners.For two decades now, Alphabet has been a winner. Its advertising business generates more than $250 billion annually, while Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, easily surpassing AAPL ’s iPhone in users. Following the lead of AMZN and Microsoft, Alphabet moved into the cloud, which is expected to generate $58 billion in revenue for the company next year. At the same time, though less talked about than TikTok, YouTube has become the planet’s No. 1 content delivery platform, with viewers watching more than a billion hours daily.The rivers of cash generated from all of its units—some $435 billion over the past decade—have allowed Google to indulge in what it calls its “other bets,” including Waymo’s self-driving car initiatives and Google Fiber broadband internet, money-losing businesses that investors simply ignore. And it’s all tied together by Google’s search engine, creating an aura of invincibility and inevitability.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, with the ability to scrub the net and provide easy, if sometimes dubious, answers, opens up a new possibility for accessing data—and a new threat to Alphabet’s dominance. Users no longer have to type questions into Google’s search bar and scroll through links. Now they can type in a question and get an answer. ChatGPT was mind-blowing when it arrived—and an immediate success. “It was the fastest [growing], most exciting app that has ever hit the market,” says Futurum Group CEO and technology researcher Daniel Newman, who noted that it reached 100 million active users just two months after its launch. Perplexity, launched a month after ChatGPT, has grown to 15 million monthly active users and recently launched a shopping assistant, allowing users to type in a question, get an answer, and execute a transaction. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, calls the company’s tool an “answer machine,” one that gives users the information they need versus just giving them links. Perplexity answered about 425 million questions over the past 30 days, up from 500 million in all of 2023. Ultimately, the company hopes to create an all-in-one app, where users can act on what they have learned and never have to leave. These changes seem ominous for Google. Follow them to their logical conclusion and it isn’t hard to imagine traditional search fading away and the market fragmenting, with consumers one day communicating with their devices via an AI-generated custom interface. In February, technology research firm Gartner projected that total search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026. There’s only one problem with those dire predictions—the data don’t back them up. Microsoft was the first mover, putting ChatGPT into Bing, while boldly claiming that taking 1% of search market share would translate to $2 billion in incremental revenue. “Microsoft took no share,” says Futurum’s Newman. What’s more, Alphabet’s October earnings report showed no signs of a search slowdown. It easily topped earnings and sales forecasts, while revenue from its cloud business gained 35%. But it was search that was perhaps the most surprising. Anyone who visited Google recently noticed that the service often provides an AI-generated summary of the findings, as well as a list of links. Investors had worried that would mean fewer links and ads, but management appeared optimistic about its ability to make money from those searches.“We still have no idea how they’ll really monetize AI or other innovations, but the perceived ‘threats’ (OpenAI, Meta AI, Perplexity, and upcoming Meta and OpenAI search) will have to wait, as Google Search growth of 12% beat estimates modestly,” writes Melius analyst Ben Reitzes. Alphabet has something going for it that OpenAI, which has a partnership with NWSA , the owner of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, and Perplexity don’t—it’s a moneymaking business. The two start-ups are still in the early stages of their business development and aren’t profitable. How they ultimately monetize their businesses—and whether they can successfully do it—remains to be seen. Perplexity is also being sued for not paying for the content it feeds into its large-language models, or LLMs, something that could ultimately force it to change how it operates. (Dow Jones is one of the companies suing Perplexity.)While the upstarts try to figure things out, search should keep growing. Media investment and data-services provider GroupM projects that search advertising revenue will grow more than 6% in 2025, up from about 5% in 2024, with about 5% average annual growth through the decade’s end. It isn’t that people like to click through a list of links produced from a query, but that AI-assisted search will produce better results, leading to more questions and further searches. Rather than being a paradigm shift like the switch from desktop to mobile, AI search may be a new format for answers, says New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon. “[It’s] more akin to the integration of images, maps, and other forms of content beyond the original text links,” he explains. Salmon rates Alphabet stock a Buy with a $213 price target.     The advent of AI is also likely to create new types of search and novel ways to earn money from sifting through information. There is the traditional ad-supported version—now with AI summaries—that Google dominates, and premium tools are available by subscription. There are even tools being created for individual companies, such as GE ’sChatGPT-powered Wingmate, which uses LLMs to provide relevant answers to the questions from the company’s engineers based on design and operating manuals. Now, imagine every company in the S&amp;P 500 doing the same thing. “Search behavior already moved to a dual revenue stream: subscriptions and ads,” Salmon says.<img src=\"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/dbb663d732217d6d4f55b5a9d696adfd\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" tg-width=\"770\" tg-height=\"513\"/>Alphabet is playing in both pools. Google One has over 100 million subscribers, and its premium version includes Alphabet’s highest-level AI functionality for $20 a month. ChatGPT’s premium product has about 10 million subscribers, Salmon estimates. Alphabet also has the advantage of experience, including years of work with its Google Brain and DeepMind AI projects and its internally developed Tensor AI hardware. And it recently purchased character.ai for $2.7 billion to help with these efforts. It has the advantage of $154 billion in operating cash it is expected to earn in 2025 as it gets ready to spend $59 billion on its AI future, similar to what Microsoft spends a year. That spending should pay off. Salmon estimates that generative AI overviews and subscriptions keep Alphabet’s Google business growing at about 10% a year on average through 2027. “New AI features in search are resulting in better engagement and higher levels of user satisfaction,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, adding that structural risks to Google’s search dominance are overblown. Wedbush rates Alphabet shares a Buy and has a $210 price target.  AI might not be able to slow Google down, but the antitrust risk is real, as this past week’s decline demonstrates. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, saying that Google illegally monopolized search. This past week, the DOJ proposed a list of remedies that include selling the Chrome browser, prohibiting the ownership and control of anything that creates a preference for Google, and “restoring competition through syndication and data access”—essentially requiring the company to provide its core search index to anyone who wants it to label as their own free of cost.“We view many of the DOJ’s recommendations to restrict Google Search (and other products) as unlikely to be approved by the court, or to survive an appeals process,” writes Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who rates the stock a Buy with a $205 price target. “Beyond the reasonable ask to prohibit search distribution agreements, the DOJ remedies are, in our view, a wish-list of restrictions on Google that stray well beyond the court’s ruling.”Alphabet is fighting the ruling, but other cases loom, including one the U.S. has brought against the company over its advertising business. Appeals are likely to delay any action until 2027 at the earliest. In October, President-elect Donald Trump came out against a Google breakup in favor of making it more fair.Some changes will be offset. An end to Alphabet paying companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine could mean a loss of market share. But the company spends billions annually on search acquisition costs, including some $20 billion to Apple in 2022, according to court filings. The impact of lower revenue and expenses could, in theory, result in a near-negligible hit to earnings per share, according to Wolfe Research analyst Shweta Khajuria.Alphabet stock appears to reflect these antitrust concerns. It trades for 19.4 times earnings, below the S&amp;P 500&#39;s 22 times and Meta Platforms&#39; 22.9 times. &#34;The stock is already reflecting that risk,&#34; says Putnam Investments&#39; Ellen Hazen, who comments that her firm would consider adding to its existing position if it falls back to about $170.Oakmarket Select portfolio manager Bill Nygren goes even further. He argues that Alphabet, with a market value of $2.1 trillion including cash and debt, is worth more than the sum of its parts. &#34;Forcing investors to recognize the value of each [business] would probably make the stock go up,&#34; he says.An analysis of those individual parts bears that out. Alphabet&#39;s cloud business, which could generate roughly $20 billion in 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, would be worth $325 billion at a 16 times multiple, similar to what Amazon and Microsoft fetch. YouTube would be worth up to $800 billion if it traded at 22 times Ebitda, the average of what Meta and Netflix change hands for.Waymo is a little harder to value. Uber Technologies is valued at $150 billion, while Wall Street valuations for Tesla&#39;s self-driving business range from $100 billion to trillions, even though the company has yet to complete a single fully autonomous ride. Alphabet&#39;s Waymo completes 150,000 self-driving cab rides each week, making it a real self-driving player. It is reasonable to value it at about $300 billion, though some bulls think it&#39;s worth far more than that: Deepwater Asset Management&#39;s Gene Munster put Waymo&#39;s valuation at $350 billion to $850 billion by 2030 and expects a spinoff in the next two to four years.That leaves Alphabet&#39;s search business worth roughly $550 billion, adjusted for its $117 billion in net cash and investments, or about five times Ebitda. Nygren, who doesn&#39;t include Waymo, calculates that Google Search trades at about 11 times earnings. That is enough of a margin of safety for him, given what Alphabet is facing.As for upside, it&#39;s easy to justify a $260 stock price for the company based on the sum of its parts, up 55% from Thursday&#39;s close. Or Alphabet could be recognized as one of the world&#39;s dominant tech companies. Getting back to its historical premium relative to the market implies that Alphabet shares would trade for about 26 times earnings and be worth about $234 a share, up 40%. &#34;We think of it as a high-multiple tech stock that isn&#39;t [priced] like one,&#34; says Nygren.For Alphabet, AI isn&#39;t the end of the line -- it&#39;s the next step to a brighter future.</body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"LU2237438978.USD":"Amundi Funds US Pioneer A2 (C) USD","LU2083900584.USD":"HSBC GIF US INCOME FOCUSED \"AM2\" (USD) INC","LU1582987324.SGD":"M&G (LUX) INCOME ALLOCATION \"A-H\" (SGDHDG) ACC","LU1188199696.SGD":"Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income A Dis SGD","LU2237957811.SGD":"NIKKO AM GLOBAL EQUITY \"F\" (SGD) ACC","LU0302445910.USD":"SCHRODER ISF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE EQUITY \"A\" ACC","LU1582987597.SGD":"M&G (LUX) INCOME ALLOCATION \"A-H\" (SGDHDG) INC","LU2361044865.SGD":"WELLINGTON US QUALITY GROWTH \"A\" (SGDHDG) ACC","BK4573":"虚拟现实","LU0158827948.USD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY \"A\" (USD) INC","IE000ITXATA3.USD":"PIMCO BALANCED INCOME AND GROWTH \"M\" (USD) ACC","LU0157215616.USD":"FIDELITY GLOBAL FOCUS \"A\" INC","LU0096364046.USD":"CT (LUX) I AMERICAN \"DU\" (USD) ACC","LU1181866309.USD":"摩根大通环球策略总报酬基金A (acc)","LU1718418525.SGD":"JPMorgan Investment Funds - Global Select Equity A (acc) SGD","LU1564329032.USD":"BGF DYNAMIC HIGH INCOME \"A2\" (USD) ACC","LU0960925559.SGD":"Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income A Acc SGD","IE00BKVL7J92.USD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - US Equity Sustainability Leaders A Acc USD","LU1201861165.SGD":"Natixis Harris Associates Global Equity PA SGD","LU1951200564.SGD":"Natixis Thematics AI & Robotics Fund R/A SGD","IE00B4JS1V06.HKD":"JANUS HENDERSON BALANCED \"A2\" (HKD) ACC","LU1334329650.SGD":"JPMorgan Investment Funds - Global Macro Opportunities A (acc) SGD-H","GOOG":"谷歌","LU0528227936.USD":"富达环球人口趋势基金A-ACC","LU2271345857.HKD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY \"AT\" (HKD) ACC","GOOGL":"谷歌A","LU2430703095.HKD":"WELLINGTON MULTI-ASSET HIGH INCOME \"AM4\" (HKD) INC","LU0187121727.USD":"FIDELITY SUSTAINABLE US EQUITY \"A\" (USD) INC","BK4567":"ESG概念","LU2065171402.SGD":"M&G (LUX) GLOBAL MAXIMA \"A\" (SGD) INC","IE00BN29S564.USD":"JANUS HENDERSON BALANCED \"A3\" (USD) INC","LU0238689110.USD":"贝莱德环球动力股票基金","LU1983260115.SGD":"Janus Henderson Horizon Global Sustainable Equity A2 SGD-H","LU2461242641.AUD":"WELLINGTON US QUALITY GROWTH \"A\" (AUDHDG) ACC","LU1732800096.USD":"摩根大通环球收益基金A (irc)","GB00BDT5M118.USD":"天利环球扩展Alpha基金A Acc","LU1670710588.SGD":"M&G (LUX) GLOBAL DIVIDEND \"A\" (SGD) ACC","LU0056508442.USD":"贝莱德世界科技基金A2","LU0640476718.USD":"THREADNEEDLE (LUX) US CONTRARIAN CORE EQ \"AU\" (USD) ACC","LU0080751232.USD":"富达环球多元动力基金A","LU2237443622.USD":"Aberdeen Standard SICAV I - Global Dynamic Dividend A Acc USD","LU2237443465.HKD":"abrdn SICAV I - GLOBAL DYNAMIC DIVIDEND \"A\" (HKD) INC","LU2089284900.SGD":"Allianz Global Sustainability Cl AM Dis H2-SGD","IE00BJLML261.HKD":"HSBC GLOBAL EQUITY INDEX \"HCH\" (HKD) ACC","LU2028103732.USD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY \"AMG\" (USD) INC","LU2362540622.SGD":"WELLINGTON NEXT GENERATION GLOBAL EQUITY \"A\" (SGDHDG) ACC","LU1301847155.USD":"BGF GLOBAL MULTI-ASSET INCOME FUND \"A4G\" (USD) INC"},"source_url":"https://dowjonesnews.com/newdjn/logon.aspx?AL=N","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2485040093","content_text":"Google is under attack. GOOGL stock will still emerge a winner. Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google—and hit it hard—when it put forward remedies to break Google’s hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence—computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language—which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MSFT in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses—and so does its stock. Alphabet, however, is more than up to the task of defending itself. Since going public in 2004—at a split-adjusted $2.13 a share—Google has navigated the shifting terrain of the internet, including the transition from desktops to mobile phones, with relative ease. While the future will be more complicated, generative AI has the potential to add revenue, as Gemini, Google’s AI tool, ramps up and becomes more powerful. While the government’s attempt to break Alphabet apart could be an overhang, it appears to be reflected in the stock, which is the cheapest of the Magnificent Seven and even cheaper than the S&P 500 index. Even as that future unfolds, the company’s search business remains dominant—and cash-generating—and that is unlikely to change, even as the way people find information does.“I don’t see betting against Google,” says Jason Browne, president of Texas-based investment advisory firm Alexis Investment Partners.For two decades now, Alphabet has been a winner. Its advertising business generates more than $250 billion annually, while Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, easily surpassing AAPL ’s iPhone in users. Following the lead of AMZN and Microsoft, Alphabet moved into the cloud, which is expected to generate $58 billion in revenue for the company next year. At the same time, though less talked about than TikTok, YouTube has become the planet’s No. 1 content delivery platform, with viewers watching more than a billion hours daily.The rivers of cash generated from all of its units—some $435 billion over the past decade—have allowed Google to indulge in what it calls its “other bets,” including Waymo’s self-driving car initiatives and Google Fiber broadband internet, money-losing businesses that investors simply ignore. And it’s all tied together by Google’s search engine, creating an aura of invincibility and inevitability.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, with the ability to scrub the net and provide easy, if sometimes dubious, answers, opens up a new possibility for accessing data—and a new threat to Alphabet’s dominance. Users no longer have to type questions into Google’s search bar and scroll through links. Now they can type in a question and get an answer. ChatGPT was mind-blowing when it arrived—and an immediate success. “It was the fastest [growing], most exciting app that has ever hit the market,” says Futurum Group CEO and technology researcher Daniel Newman, who noted that it reached 100 million active users just two months after its launch. Perplexity, launched a month after ChatGPT, has grown to 15 million monthly active users and recently launched a shopping assistant, allowing users to type in a question, get an answer, and execute a transaction. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, calls the company’s tool an “answer machine,” one that gives users the information they need versus just giving them links. Perplexity answered about 425 million questions over the past 30 days, up from 500 million in all of 2023. Ultimately, the company hopes to create an all-in-one app, where users can act on what they have learned and never have to leave. These changes seem ominous for Google. Follow them to their logical conclusion and it isn’t hard to imagine traditional search fading away and the market fragmenting, with consumers one day communicating with their devices via an AI-generated custom interface. In February, technology research firm Gartner projected that total search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026. There’s only one problem with those dire predictions—the data don’t back them up. Microsoft was the first mover, putting ChatGPT into Bing, while boldly claiming that taking 1% of search market share would translate to $2 billion in incremental revenue. “Microsoft took no share,” says Futurum’s Newman. What’s more, Alphabet’s October earnings report showed no signs of a search slowdown. It easily topped earnings and sales forecasts, while revenue from its cloud business gained 35%. But it was search that was perhaps the most surprising. Anyone who visited Google recently noticed that the service often provides an AI-generated summary of the findings, as well as a list of links. Investors had worried that would mean fewer links and ads, but management appeared optimistic about its ability to make money from those searches.“We still have no idea how they’ll really monetize AI or other innovations, but the perceived ‘threats’ (OpenAI, Meta AI, Perplexity, and upcoming Meta and OpenAI search) will have to wait, as Google Search growth of 12% beat estimates modestly,” writes Melius analyst Ben Reitzes. Alphabet has something going for it that OpenAI, which has a partnership with NWSA , the owner of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, and Perplexity don’t—it’s a moneymaking business. The two start-ups are still in the early stages of their business development and aren’t profitable. How they ultimately monetize their businesses—and whether they can successfully do it—remains to be seen. Perplexity is also being sued for not paying for the content it feeds into its large-language models, or LLMs, something that could ultimately force it to change how it operates. (Dow Jones is one of the companies suing Perplexity.)While the upstarts try to figure things out, search should keep growing. Media investment and data-services provider GroupM projects that search advertising revenue will grow more than 6% in 2025, up from about 5% in 2024, with about 5% average annual growth through the decade’s end. It isn’t that people like to click through a list of links produced from a query, but that AI-assisted search will produce better results, leading to more questions and further searches. Rather than being a paradigm shift like the switch from desktop to mobile, AI search may be a new format for answers, says New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon. “[It’s] more akin to the integration of images, maps, and other forms of content beyond the original text links,” he explains. Salmon rates Alphabet stock a Buy with a $213 price target.     The advent of AI is also likely to create new types of search and novel ways to earn money from sifting through information. There is the traditional ad-supported version—now with AI summaries—that Google dominates, and premium tools are available by subscription. There are even tools being created for individual companies, such as GE ’sChatGPT-powered Wingmate, which uses LLMs to provide relevant answers to the questions from the company’s engineers based on design and operating manuals. Now, imagine every company in the S&P 500 doing the same thing. “Search behavior already moved to a dual revenue stream: subscriptions and ads,” Salmon says.Alphabet is playing in both pools. Google One has over 100 million subscribers, and its premium version includes Alphabet’s highest-level AI functionality for $20 a month. ChatGPT’s premium product has about 10 million subscribers, Salmon estimates. Alphabet also has the advantage of experience, including years of work with its Google Brain and DeepMind AI projects and its internally developed Tensor AI hardware. And it recently purchased character.ai for $2.7 billion to help with these efforts. It has the advantage of $154 billion in operating cash it is expected to earn in 2025 as it gets ready to spend $59 billion on its AI future, similar to what Microsoft spends a year. That spending should pay off. Salmon estimates that generative AI overviews and subscriptions keep Alphabet’s Google business growing at about 10% a year on average through 2027. “New AI features in search are resulting in better engagement and higher levels of user satisfaction,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, adding that structural risks to Google’s search dominance are overblown. Wedbush rates Alphabet shares a Buy and has a $210 price target.  AI might not be able to slow Google down, but the antitrust risk is real, as this past week’s decline demonstrates. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, saying that Google illegally monopolized search. This past week, the DOJ proposed a list of remedies that include selling the Chrome browser, prohibiting the ownership and control of anything that creates a preference for Google, and “restoring competition through syndication and data access”—essentially requiring the company to provide its core search index to anyone who wants it to label as their own free of cost.“We view many of the DOJ’s recommendations to restrict Google Search (and other products) as unlikely to be approved by the court, or to survive an appeals process,” writes Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who rates the stock a Buy with a $205 price target. “Beyond the reasonable ask to prohibit search distribution agreements, the DOJ remedies are, in our view, a wish-list of restrictions on Google that stray well beyond the court’s ruling.”Alphabet is fighting the ruling, but other cases loom, including one the U.S. has brought against the company over its advertising business. Appeals are likely to delay any action until 2027 at the earliest. In October, President-elect Donald Trump came out against a Google breakup in favor of making it more fair.Some changes will be offset. An end to Alphabet paying companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine could mean a loss of market share. But the company spends billions annually on search acquisition costs, including some $20 billion to Apple in 2022, according to court filings. The impact of lower revenue and expenses could, in theory, result in a near-negligible hit to earnings per share, according to Wolfe Research analyst Shweta Khajuria.Alphabet stock appears to reflect these antitrust concerns. It trades for 19.4 times earnings, below the S&P 500's 22 times and Meta Platforms' 22.9 times. \"The stock is already reflecting that risk,\" says Putnam Investments' Ellen Hazen, who comments that her firm would consider adding to its existing position if it falls back to about $170.Oakmarket Select portfolio manager Bill Nygren goes even further. He argues that Alphabet, with a market value of $2.1 trillion including cash and debt, is worth more than the sum of its parts. \"Forcing investors to recognize the value of each [business] would probably make the stock go up,\" he says.An analysis of those individual parts bears that out. Alphabet's cloud business, which could generate roughly $20 billion in 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, would be worth $325 billion at a 16 times multiple, similar to what Amazon and Microsoft fetch. YouTube would be worth up to $800 billion if it traded at 22 times Ebitda, the average of what Meta and Netflix change hands for.Waymo is a little harder to value. Uber Technologies is valued at $150 billion, while Wall Street valuations for Tesla's self-driving business range from $100 billion to trillions, even though the company has yet to complete a single fully autonomous ride. Alphabet's Waymo completes 150,000 self-driving cab rides each week, making it a real self-driving player. It is reasonable to value it at about $300 billion, though some bulls think it's worth far more than that: Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster put Waymo's valuation at $350 billion to $850 billion by 2030 and expects a spinoff in the next two to four years.That leaves Alphabet's search business worth roughly $550 billion, adjusted for its $117 billion in net cash and investments, or about five times Ebitda. Nygren, who doesn't include Waymo, calculates that Google Search trades at about 11 times earnings. That is enough of a margin of safety for him, given what Alphabet is facing.As for upside, it's easy to justify a $260 stock price for the company based on the sum of its parts, up 55% from Thursday's close. Or Alphabet could be recognized as one of the world's dominant tech companies. Getting back to its historical premium relative to the market implies that Alphabet shares would trade for about 26 times earnings and be worth about $234 a share, up 40%. \"We think of it as a high-multiple tech stock that isn't [priced] like one,\" says Nygren.For Alphabet, AI isn't the end of the line -- it's the next step to a brighter future.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":69,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"essenList":[{"id":374077719253104,"gmtCreate":1732337007319,"gmtModify":1732337011384,"author":{"id":"4101299314304390","authorId":"4101299314304390","name":"Avenite","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/b7cb9f66c2dfcd97ff88a4cdff7fe2ed","crmLevel":5,"crmLevelSwitch":1,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"4101299314304390","authorIdStr":"4101299314304390"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"It will fall lower until the case is finalized.&nbsp;","listText":"It will fall lower until the case is finalized.&nbsp;","text":"It will fall lower until the case is finalized.","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/374077719253104","repostId":"2485040093","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"2485040093","kind":"highlight","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Dow Jones publishes the world’s most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.","home_visible":0,"media_name":"Dow Jones","id":"106","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99"},"pubTimestamp":1732261389,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2485040093?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2024-11-22 15:43","market":"fut","language":"en","title":"Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2485040093","media":"Dow Jones","summary":"Google is under attack. Alphabet stock will still emerge a winner.Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google -- and hit it hard -- when it put forward remedies to break Google's hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence -- computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language -- which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft in a way that Yahoo!and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses -- and so does its stock.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, ","content":"<html><head></head><body>Google is under attack. GOOGL stock will still emerge a winner. Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google—and hit it hard—when it put forward remedies to break Google’s hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence—computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language—which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MSFT in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses—and so does its stock. Alphabet, however, is more than up to the task of defending itself. Since going public in 2004—at a split-adjusted $2.13 a share—Google has navigated the shifting terrain of the internet, including the transition from desktops to mobile phones, with relative ease. While the future will be more complicated, generative AI has the potential to add revenue, as Gemini, Google’s AI tool, ramps up and becomes more powerful. While the government’s attempt to break Alphabet apart could be an overhang, it appears to be reflected in the stock, which is the cheapest of the Magnificent Seven and even cheaper than the S&amp;P 500 index. Even as that future unfolds, the company’s search business remains dominant—and cash-generating—and that is unlikely to change, even as the way people find information does.“I don’t see betting against Google,” says Jason Browne, president of Texas-based investment advisory firm Alexis Investment Partners.For two decades now, Alphabet has been a winner. Its advertising business generates more than $250 billion annually, while Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, easily surpassing AAPL ’s iPhone in users. Following the lead of AMZN and Microsoft, Alphabet moved into the cloud, which is expected to generate $58 billion in revenue for the company next year. At the same time, though less talked about than TikTok, YouTube has become the planet’s No. 1 content delivery platform, with viewers watching more than a billion hours daily.The rivers of cash generated from all of its units—some $435 billion over the past decade—have allowed Google to indulge in what it calls its “other bets,” including Waymo’s self-driving car initiatives and Google Fiber broadband internet, money-losing businesses that investors simply ignore. And it’s all tied together by Google’s search engine, creating an aura of invincibility and inevitability.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, with the ability to scrub the net and provide easy, if sometimes dubious, answers, opens up a new possibility for accessing data—and a new threat to Alphabet’s dominance. Users no longer have to type questions into Google’s search bar and scroll through links. Now they can type in a question and get an answer. ChatGPT was mind-blowing when it arrived—and an immediate success. “It was the fastest [growing], most exciting app that has ever hit the market,” says Futurum Group CEO and technology researcher Daniel Newman, who noted that it reached 100 million active users just two months after its launch. Perplexity, launched a month after ChatGPT, has grown to 15 million monthly active users and recently launched a shopping assistant, allowing users to type in a question, get an answer, and execute a transaction. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, calls the company’s tool an “answer machine,” one that gives users the information they need versus just giving them links. Perplexity answered about 425 million questions over the past 30 days, up from 500 million in all of 2023. Ultimately, the company hopes to create an all-in-one app, where users can act on what they have learned and never have to leave. These changes seem ominous for Google. Follow them to their logical conclusion and it isn’t hard to imagine traditional search fading away and the market fragmenting, with consumers one day communicating with their devices via an AI-generated custom interface. In February, technology research firm Gartner projected that total search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026. There’s only one problem with those dire predictions—the data don’t back them up. Microsoft was the first mover, putting ChatGPT into Bing, while boldly claiming that taking 1% of search market share would translate to $2 billion in incremental revenue. “Microsoft took no share,” says Futurum’s Newman. What’s more, Alphabet’s October earnings report showed no signs of a search slowdown. It easily topped earnings and sales forecasts, while revenue from its cloud business gained 35%. But it was search that was perhaps the most surprising. Anyone who visited Google recently noticed that the service often provides an AI-generated summary of the findings, as well as a list of links. Investors had worried that would mean fewer links and ads, but management appeared optimistic about its ability to make money from those searches.“We still have no idea how they’ll really monetize AI or other innovations, but the perceived ‘threats’ (OpenAI, Meta AI, Perplexity, and upcoming Meta and OpenAI search) will have to wait, as Google Search growth of 12% beat estimates modestly,” writes Melius analyst Ben Reitzes. Alphabet has something going for it that OpenAI, which has a partnership with NWSA , the owner of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, and Perplexity don’t—it’s a moneymaking business. The two start-ups are still in the early stages of their business development and aren’t profitable. How they ultimately monetize their businesses—and whether they can successfully do it—remains to be seen. Perplexity is also being sued for not paying for the content it feeds into its large-language models, or LLMs, something that could ultimately force it to change how it operates. (Dow Jones is one of the companies suing Perplexity.)While the upstarts try to figure things out, search should keep growing. Media investment and data-services provider GroupM projects that search advertising revenue will grow more than 6% in 2025, up from about 5% in 2024, with about 5% average annual growth through the decade’s end. It isn’t that people like to click through a list of links produced from a query, but that AI-assisted search will produce better results, leading to more questions and further searches. Rather than being a paradigm shift like the switch from desktop to mobile, AI search may be a new format for answers, says New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon. “[It’s] more akin to the integration of images, maps, and other forms of content beyond the original text links,” he explains. Salmon rates Alphabet stock a Buy with a $213 price target.     The advent of AI is also likely to create new types of search and novel ways to earn money from sifting through information. There is the traditional ad-supported version—now with AI summaries—that Google dominates, and premium tools are available by subscription. There are even tools being created for individual companies, such as GE ’sChatGPT-powered Wingmate, which uses LLMs to provide relevant answers to the questions from the company’s engineers based on design and operating manuals. Now, imagine every company in the S&amp;P 500 doing the same thing. “Search behavior already moved to a dual revenue stream: subscriptions and ads,” Salmon says.<img src=\"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/dbb663d732217d6d4f55b5a9d696adfd\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" tg-width=\"770\" tg-height=\"513\"/>Alphabet is playing in both pools. Google One has over 100 million subscribers, and its premium version includes Alphabet’s highest-level AI functionality for $20 a month. ChatGPT’s premium product has about 10 million subscribers, Salmon estimates. Alphabet also has the advantage of experience, including years of work with its Google Brain and DeepMind AI projects and its internally developed Tensor AI hardware. And it recently purchased character.ai for $2.7 billion to help with these efforts. It has the advantage of $154 billion in operating cash it is expected to earn in 2025 as it gets ready to spend $59 billion on its AI future, similar to what Microsoft spends a year. That spending should pay off. Salmon estimates that generative AI overviews and subscriptions keep Alphabet’s Google business growing at about 10% a year on average through 2027. “New AI features in search are resulting in better engagement and higher levels of user satisfaction,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, adding that structural risks to Google’s search dominance are overblown. Wedbush rates Alphabet shares a Buy and has a $210 price target.  AI might not be able to slow Google down, but the antitrust risk is real, as this past week’s decline demonstrates. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, saying that Google illegally monopolized search. This past week, the DOJ proposed a list of remedies that include selling the Chrome browser, prohibiting the ownership and control of anything that creates a preference for Google, and “restoring competition through syndication and data access”—essentially requiring the company to provide its core search index to anyone who wants it to label as their own free of cost.“We view many of the DOJ’s recommendations to restrict Google Search (and other products) as unlikely to be approved by the court, or to survive an appeals process,” writes Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who rates the stock a Buy with a $205 price target. “Beyond the reasonable ask to prohibit search distribution agreements, the DOJ remedies are, in our view, a wish-list of restrictions on Google that stray well beyond the court’s ruling.”Alphabet is fighting the ruling, but other cases loom, including one the U.S. has brought against the company over its advertising business. Appeals are likely to delay any action until 2027 at the earliest. In October, President-elect Donald Trump came out against a Google breakup in favor of making it more fair.Some changes will be offset. An end to Alphabet paying companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine could mean a loss of market share. But the company spends billions annually on search acquisition costs, including some $20 billion to Apple in 2022, according to court filings. The impact of lower revenue and expenses could, in theory, result in a near-negligible hit to earnings per share, according to Wolfe Research analyst Shweta Khajuria.Alphabet stock appears to reflect these antitrust concerns. It trades for 19.4 times earnings, below the S&amp;P 500&#39;s 22 times and Meta Platforms&#39; 22.9 times. &#34;The stock is already reflecting that risk,&#34; says Putnam Investments&#39; Ellen Hazen, who comments that her firm would consider adding to its existing position if it falls back to about $170.Oakmarket Select portfolio manager Bill Nygren goes even further. He argues that Alphabet, with a market value of $2.1 trillion including cash and debt, is worth more than the sum of its parts. &#34;Forcing investors to recognize the value of each [business] would probably make the stock go up,&#34; he says.An analysis of those individual parts bears that out. Alphabet&#39;s cloud business, which could generate roughly $20 billion in 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, would be worth $325 billion at a 16 times multiple, similar to what Amazon and Microsoft fetch. YouTube would be worth up to $800 billion if it traded at 22 times Ebitda, the average of what Meta and Netflix change hands for.Waymo is a little harder to value. Uber Technologies is valued at $150 billion, while Wall Street valuations for Tesla&#39;s self-driving business range from $100 billion to trillions, even though the company has yet to complete a single fully autonomous ride. Alphabet&#39;s Waymo completes 150,000 self-driving cab rides each week, making it a real self-driving player. It is reasonable to value it at about $300 billion, though some bulls think it&#39;s worth far more than that: Deepwater Asset Management&#39;s Gene Munster put Waymo&#39;s valuation at $350 billion to $850 billion by 2030 and expects a spinoff in the next two to four years.That leaves Alphabet&#39;s search business worth roughly $550 billion, adjusted for its $117 billion in net cash and investments, or about five times Ebitda. Nygren, who doesn&#39;t include Waymo, calculates that Google Search trades at about 11 times earnings. That is enough of a margin of safety for him, given what Alphabet is facing.As for upside, it&#39;s easy to justify a $260 stock price for the company based on the sum of its parts, up 55% from Thursday&#39;s close. Or Alphabet could be recognized as one of the world&#39;s dominant tech companies. Getting back to its historical premium relative to the market implies that Alphabet shares would trade for about 26 times earnings and be worth about $234 a share, up 40%. &#34;We think of it as a high-multiple tech stock that isn&#39;t [priced] like one,&#34; says Nygren.For Alphabet, AI isn&#39;t the end of the line -- it&#39;s the next step to a brighter future.</body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Google Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nGoogle Will Survive AI and Break-up Calls. Why Alphabet Stock Could Gain 50%\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<div class=\"head\" \">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/150f88aa4d182df19190059f4a365e99);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\nDow Jones \n2024-11-22 15:43\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body>Google is under attack. GOOGL stock will still emerge a winner. Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google—and hit it hard—when it put forward remedies to break Google’s hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence—computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language—which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MSFT in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses—and so does its stock. Alphabet, however, is more than up to the task of defending itself. Since going public in 2004—at a split-adjusted $2.13 a share—Google has navigated the shifting terrain of the internet, including the transition from desktops to mobile phones, with relative ease. While the future will be more complicated, generative AI has the potential to add revenue, as Gemini, Google’s AI tool, ramps up and becomes more powerful. While the government’s attempt to break Alphabet apart could be an overhang, it appears to be reflected in the stock, which is the cheapest of the Magnificent Seven and even cheaper than the S&amp;P 500 index. Even as that future unfolds, the company’s search business remains dominant—and cash-generating—and that is unlikely to change, even as the way people find information does.“I don’t see betting against Google,” says Jason Browne, president of Texas-based investment advisory firm Alexis Investment Partners.For two decades now, Alphabet has been a winner. Its advertising business generates more than $250 billion annually, while Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, easily surpassing AAPL ’s iPhone in users. Following the lead of AMZN and Microsoft, Alphabet moved into the cloud, which is expected to generate $58 billion in revenue for the company next year. At the same time, though less talked about than TikTok, YouTube has become the planet’s No. 1 content delivery platform, with viewers watching more than a billion hours daily.The rivers of cash generated from all of its units—some $435 billion over the past decade—have allowed Google to indulge in what it calls its “other bets,” including Waymo’s self-driving car initiatives and Google Fiber broadband internet, money-losing businesses that investors simply ignore. And it’s all tied together by Google’s search engine, creating an aura of invincibility and inevitability.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, with the ability to scrub the net and provide easy, if sometimes dubious, answers, opens up a new possibility for accessing data—and a new threat to Alphabet’s dominance. Users no longer have to type questions into Google’s search bar and scroll through links. Now they can type in a question and get an answer. ChatGPT was mind-blowing when it arrived—and an immediate success. “It was the fastest [growing], most exciting app that has ever hit the market,” says Futurum Group CEO and technology researcher Daniel Newman, who noted that it reached 100 million active users just two months after its launch. Perplexity, launched a month after ChatGPT, has grown to 15 million monthly active users and recently launched a shopping assistant, allowing users to type in a question, get an answer, and execute a transaction. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, calls the company’s tool an “answer machine,” one that gives users the information they need versus just giving them links. Perplexity answered about 425 million questions over the past 30 days, up from 500 million in all of 2023. Ultimately, the company hopes to create an all-in-one app, where users can act on what they have learned and never have to leave. These changes seem ominous for Google. Follow them to their logical conclusion and it isn’t hard to imagine traditional search fading away and the market fragmenting, with consumers one day communicating with their devices via an AI-generated custom interface. In February, technology research firm Gartner projected that total search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026. There’s only one problem with those dire predictions—the data don’t back them up. Microsoft was the first mover, putting ChatGPT into Bing, while boldly claiming that taking 1% of search market share would translate to $2 billion in incremental revenue. “Microsoft took no share,” says Futurum’s Newman. What’s more, Alphabet’s October earnings report showed no signs of a search slowdown. It easily topped earnings and sales forecasts, while revenue from its cloud business gained 35%. But it was search that was perhaps the most surprising. Anyone who visited Google recently noticed that the service often provides an AI-generated summary of the findings, as well as a list of links. Investors had worried that would mean fewer links and ads, but management appeared optimistic about its ability to make money from those searches.“We still have no idea how they’ll really monetize AI or other innovations, but the perceived ‘threats’ (OpenAI, Meta AI, Perplexity, and upcoming Meta and OpenAI search) will have to wait, as Google Search growth of 12% beat estimates modestly,” writes Melius analyst Ben Reitzes. Alphabet has something going for it that OpenAI, which has a partnership with NWSA , the owner of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, and Perplexity don’t—it’s a moneymaking business. The two start-ups are still in the early stages of their business development and aren’t profitable. How they ultimately monetize their businesses—and whether they can successfully do it—remains to be seen. Perplexity is also being sued for not paying for the content it feeds into its large-language models, or LLMs, something that could ultimately force it to change how it operates. (Dow Jones is one of the companies suing Perplexity.)While the upstarts try to figure things out, search should keep growing. Media investment and data-services provider GroupM projects that search advertising revenue will grow more than 6% in 2025, up from about 5% in 2024, with about 5% average annual growth through the decade’s end. It isn’t that people like to click through a list of links produced from a query, but that AI-assisted search will produce better results, leading to more questions and further searches. Rather than being a paradigm shift like the switch from desktop to mobile, AI search may be a new format for answers, says New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon. “[It’s] more akin to the integration of images, maps, and other forms of content beyond the original text links,” he explains. Salmon rates Alphabet stock a Buy with a $213 price target.     The advent of AI is also likely to create new types of search and novel ways to earn money from sifting through information. There is the traditional ad-supported version—now with AI summaries—that Google dominates, and premium tools are available by subscription. There are even tools being created for individual companies, such as GE ’sChatGPT-powered Wingmate, which uses LLMs to provide relevant answers to the questions from the company’s engineers based on design and operating manuals. Now, imagine every company in the S&amp;P 500 doing the same thing. “Search behavior already moved to a dual revenue stream: subscriptions and ads,” Salmon says.<img src=\"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/dbb663d732217d6d4f55b5a9d696adfd\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" tg-width=\"770\" tg-height=\"513\"/>Alphabet is playing in both pools. Google One has over 100 million subscribers, and its premium version includes Alphabet’s highest-level AI functionality for $20 a month. ChatGPT’s premium product has about 10 million subscribers, Salmon estimates. Alphabet also has the advantage of experience, including years of work with its Google Brain and DeepMind AI projects and its internally developed Tensor AI hardware. And it recently purchased character.ai for $2.7 billion to help with these efforts. It has the advantage of $154 billion in operating cash it is expected to earn in 2025 as it gets ready to spend $59 billion on its AI future, similar to what Microsoft spends a year. That spending should pay off. Salmon estimates that generative AI overviews and subscriptions keep Alphabet’s Google business growing at about 10% a year on average through 2027. “New AI features in search are resulting in better engagement and higher levels of user satisfaction,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, adding that structural risks to Google’s search dominance are overblown. Wedbush rates Alphabet shares a Buy and has a $210 price target.  AI might not be able to slow Google down, but the antitrust risk is real, as this past week’s decline demonstrates. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, saying that Google illegally monopolized search. This past week, the DOJ proposed a list of remedies that include selling the Chrome browser, prohibiting the ownership and control of anything that creates a preference for Google, and “restoring competition through syndication and data access”—essentially requiring the company to provide its core search index to anyone who wants it to label as their own free of cost.“We view many of the DOJ’s recommendations to restrict Google Search (and other products) as unlikely to be approved by the court, or to survive an appeals process,” writes Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who rates the stock a Buy with a $205 price target. “Beyond the reasonable ask to prohibit search distribution agreements, the DOJ remedies are, in our view, a wish-list of restrictions on Google that stray well beyond the court’s ruling.”Alphabet is fighting the ruling, but other cases loom, including one the U.S. has brought against the company over its advertising business. Appeals are likely to delay any action until 2027 at the earliest. In October, President-elect Donald Trump came out against a Google breakup in favor of making it more fair.Some changes will be offset. An end to Alphabet paying companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine could mean a loss of market share. But the company spends billions annually on search acquisition costs, including some $20 billion to Apple in 2022, according to court filings. The impact of lower revenue and expenses could, in theory, result in a near-negligible hit to earnings per share, according to Wolfe Research analyst Shweta Khajuria.Alphabet stock appears to reflect these antitrust concerns. It trades for 19.4 times earnings, below the S&amp;P 500&#39;s 22 times and Meta Platforms&#39; 22.9 times. &#34;The stock is already reflecting that risk,&#34; says Putnam Investments&#39; Ellen Hazen, who comments that her firm would consider adding to its existing position if it falls back to about $170.Oakmarket Select portfolio manager Bill Nygren goes even further. He argues that Alphabet, with a market value of $2.1 trillion including cash and debt, is worth more than the sum of its parts. &#34;Forcing investors to recognize the value of each [business] would probably make the stock go up,&#34; he says.An analysis of those individual parts bears that out. Alphabet&#39;s cloud business, which could generate roughly $20 billion in 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, would be worth $325 billion at a 16 times multiple, similar to what Amazon and Microsoft fetch. YouTube would be worth up to $800 billion if it traded at 22 times Ebitda, the average of what Meta and Netflix change hands for.Waymo is a little harder to value. Uber Technologies is valued at $150 billion, while Wall Street valuations for Tesla&#39;s self-driving business range from $100 billion to trillions, even though the company has yet to complete a single fully autonomous ride. Alphabet&#39;s Waymo completes 150,000 self-driving cab rides each week, making it a real self-driving player. It is reasonable to value it at about $300 billion, though some bulls think it&#39;s worth far more than that: Deepwater Asset Management&#39;s Gene Munster put Waymo&#39;s valuation at $350 billion to $850 billion by 2030 and expects a spinoff in the next two to four years.That leaves Alphabet&#39;s search business worth roughly $550 billion, adjusted for its $117 billion in net cash and investments, or about five times Ebitda. Nygren, who doesn&#39;t include Waymo, calculates that Google Search trades at about 11 times earnings. That is enough of a margin of safety for him, given what Alphabet is facing.As for upside, it&#39;s easy to justify a $260 stock price for the company based on the sum of its parts, up 55% from Thursday&#39;s close. Or Alphabet could be recognized as one of the world&#39;s dominant tech companies. Getting back to its historical premium relative to the market implies that Alphabet shares would trade for about 26 times earnings and be worth about $234 a share, up 40%. &#34;We think of it as a high-multiple tech stock that isn&#39;t [priced] like one,&#34; says Nygren.For Alphabet, AI isn&#39;t the end of the line -- it&#39;s the next step to a brighter future.</body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"LU2237438978.USD":"Amundi Funds US Pioneer A2 (C) USD","LU2083900584.USD":"HSBC GIF US INCOME FOCUSED \"AM2\" (USD) INC","LU1582987324.SGD":"M&G (LUX) INCOME ALLOCATION \"A-H\" (SGDHDG) ACC","LU1188199696.SGD":"Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income A Dis SGD","LU2237957811.SGD":"NIKKO AM GLOBAL EQUITY \"F\" (SGD) ACC","LU0302445910.USD":"SCHRODER ISF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE EQUITY \"A\" ACC","LU1582987597.SGD":"M&G (LUX) INCOME ALLOCATION \"A-H\" (SGDHDG) INC","LU2361044865.SGD":"WELLINGTON US QUALITY GROWTH \"A\" (SGDHDG) ACC","BK4573":"虚拟现实","LU0158827948.USD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY \"A\" (USD) INC","IE000ITXATA3.USD":"PIMCO BALANCED INCOME AND GROWTH \"M\" (USD) ACC","LU0157215616.USD":"FIDELITY GLOBAL FOCUS \"A\" INC","LU0096364046.USD":"CT (LUX) I AMERICAN \"DU\" (USD) ACC","LU1181866309.USD":"摩根大通环球策略总报酬基金A (acc)","LU1718418525.SGD":"JPMorgan Investment Funds - Global Select Equity A (acc) SGD","LU1564329032.USD":"BGF DYNAMIC HIGH INCOME \"A2\" (USD) ACC","LU0960925559.SGD":"Schroder ISF Global Multi-Asset Income A Acc SGD","IE00BKVL7J92.USD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - US Equity Sustainability Leaders A Acc USD","LU1201861165.SGD":"Natixis Harris Associates Global Equity PA SGD","LU1951200564.SGD":"Natixis Thematics AI & Robotics Fund R/A SGD","IE00B4JS1V06.HKD":"JANUS HENDERSON BALANCED \"A2\" (HKD) ACC","LU1334329650.SGD":"JPMorgan Investment Funds - Global Macro Opportunities A (acc) SGD-H","GOOG":"谷歌","LU0528227936.USD":"富达环球人口趋势基金A-ACC","LU2271345857.HKD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY \"AT\" (HKD) ACC","GOOGL":"谷歌A","LU2430703095.HKD":"WELLINGTON MULTI-ASSET HIGH INCOME \"AM4\" (HKD) INC","LU0187121727.USD":"FIDELITY SUSTAINABLE US EQUITY \"A\" (USD) INC","BK4567":"ESG概念","LU2065171402.SGD":"M&G (LUX) GLOBAL MAXIMA \"A\" (SGD) INC","IE00BN29S564.USD":"JANUS HENDERSON BALANCED \"A3\" (USD) INC","LU0238689110.USD":"贝莱德环球动力股票基金","LU1983260115.SGD":"Janus Henderson Horizon Global Sustainable Equity A2 SGD-H","LU2461242641.AUD":"WELLINGTON US QUALITY GROWTH \"A\" (AUDHDG) ACC","LU1732800096.USD":"摩根大通环球收益基金A (irc)","GB00BDT5M118.USD":"天利环球扩展Alpha基金A Acc","LU1670710588.SGD":"M&G (LUX) GLOBAL DIVIDEND \"A\" (SGD) ACC","LU0056508442.USD":"贝莱德世界科技基金A2","LU0640476718.USD":"THREADNEEDLE (LUX) US CONTRARIAN CORE EQ \"AU\" (USD) ACC","LU0080751232.USD":"富达环球多元动力基金A","LU2237443622.USD":"Aberdeen Standard SICAV I - Global Dynamic Dividend A Acc USD","LU2237443465.HKD":"abrdn SICAV I - GLOBAL DYNAMIC DIVIDEND \"A\" (HKD) INC","LU2089284900.SGD":"Allianz Global Sustainability Cl AM Dis H2-SGD","IE00BJLML261.HKD":"HSBC GLOBAL EQUITY INDEX \"HCH\" (HKD) ACC","LU2028103732.USD":"ALLIANZ GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY \"AMG\" (USD) INC","LU2362540622.SGD":"WELLINGTON NEXT GENERATION GLOBAL EQUITY \"A\" (SGDHDG) ACC","LU1301847155.USD":"BGF GLOBAL MULTI-ASSET INCOME FUND \"A4G\" (USD) INC"},"source_url":"https://dowjonesnews.com/newdjn/logon.aspx?AL=N","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2485040093","content_text":"Google is under attack. GOOGL stock will still emerge a winner. Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google—and hit it hard—when it put forward remedies to break Google’s hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence—computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language—which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MSFT in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses—and so does its stock. Alphabet, however, is more than up to the task of defending itself. Since going public in 2004—at a split-adjusted $2.13 a share—Google has navigated the shifting terrain of the internet, including the transition from desktops to mobile phones, with relative ease. While the future will be more complicated, generative AI has the potential to add revenue, as Gemini, Google’s AI tool, ramps up and becomes more powerful. While the government’s attempt to break Alphabet apart could be an overhang, it appears to be reflected in the stock, which is the cheapest of the Magnificent Seven and even cheaper than the S&P 500 index. Even as that future unfolds, the company’s search business remains dominant—and cash-generating—and that is unlikely to change, even as the way people find information does.“I don’t see betting against Google,” says Jason Browne, president of Texas-based investment advisory firm Alexis Investment Partners.For two decades now, Alphabet has been a winner. Its advertising business generates more than $250 billion annually, while Android has become the world’s most popular mobile operating system, easily surpassing AAPL ’s iPhone in users. Following the lead of AMZN and Microsoft, Alphabet moved into the cloud, which is expected to generate $58 billion in revenue for the company next year. At the same time, though less talked about than TikTok, YouTube has become the planet’s No. 1 content delivery platform, with viewers watching more than a billion hours daily.The rivers of cash generated from all of its units—some $435 billion over the past decade—have allowed Google to indulge in what it calls its “other bets,” including Waymo’s self-driving car initiatives and Google Fiber broadband internet, money-losing businesses that investors simply ignore. And it’s all tied together by Google’s search engine, creating an aura of invincibility and inevitability.Then, ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Generative AI, with the ability to scrub the net and provide easy, if sometimes dubious, answers, opens up a new possibility for accessing data—and a new threat to Alphabet’s dominance. Users no longer have to type questions into Google’s search bar and scroll through links. Now they can type in a question and get an answer. ChatGPT was mind-blowing when it arrived—and an immediate success. “It was the fastest [growing], most exciting app that has ever hit the market,” says Futurum Group CEO and technology researcher Daniel Newman, who noted that it reached 100 million active users just two months after its launch. Perplexity, launched a month after ChatGPT, has grown to 15 million monthly active users and recently launched a shopping assistant, allowing users to type in a question, get an answer, and execute a transaction. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, calls the company’s tool an “answer machine,” one that gives users the information they need versus just giving them links. Perplexity answered about 425 million questions over the past 30 days, up from 500 million in all of 2023. Ultimately, the company hopes to create an all-in-one app, where users can act on what they have learned and never have to leave. These changes seem ominous for Google. Follow them to their logical conclusion and it isn’t hard to imagine traditional search fading away and the market fragmenting, with consumers one day communicating with their devices via an AI-generated custom interface. In February, technology research firm Gartner projected that total search engine volume would drop 25% by 2026. There’s only one problem with those dire predictions—the data don’t back them up. Microsoft was the first mover, putting ChatGPT into Bing, while boldly claiming that taking 1% of search market share would translate to $2 billion in incremental revenue. “Microsoft took no share,” says Futurum’s Newman. What’s more, Alphabet’s October earnings report showed no signs of a search slowdown. It easily topped earnings and sales forecasts, while revenue from its cloud business gained 35%. But it was search that was perhaps the most surprising. Anyone who visited Google recently noticed that the service often provides an AI-generated summary of the findings, as well as a list of links. Investors had worried that would mean fewer links and ads, but management appeared optimistic about its ability to make money from those searches.“We still have no idea how they’ll really monetize AI or other innovations, but the perceived ‘threats’ (OpenAI, Meta AI, Perplexity, and upcoming Meta and OpenAI search) will have to wait, as Google Search growth of 12% beat estimates modestly,” writes Melius analyst Ben Reitzes. Alphabet has something going for it that OpenAI, which has a partnership with NWSA , the owner of Barron’s parent Dow Jones, and Perplexity don’t—it’s a moneymaking business. The two start-ups are still in the early stages of their business development and aren’t profitable. How they ultimately monetize their businesses—and whether they can successfully do it—remains to be seen. Perplexity is also being sued for not paying for the content it feeds into its large-language models, or LLMs, something that could ultimately force it to change how it operates. (Dow Jones is one of the companies suing Perplexity.)While the upstarts try to figure things out, search should keep growing. Media investment and data-services provider GroupM projects that search advertising revenue will grow more than 6% in 2025, up from about 5% in 2024, with about 5% average annual growth through the decade’s end. It isn’t that people like to click through a list of links produced from a query, but that AI-assisted search will produce better results, leading to more questions and further searches. Rather than being a paradigm shift like the switch from desktop to mobile, AI search may be a new format for answers, says New Street Research analyst Dan Salmon. “[It’s] more akin to the integration of images, maps, and other forms of content beyond the original text links,” he explains. Salmon rates Alphabet stock a Buy with a $213 price target.     The advent of AI is also likely to create new types of search and novel ways to earn money from sifting through information. There is the traditional ad-supported version—now with AI summaries—that Google dominates, and premium tools are available by subscription. There are even tools being created for individual companies, such as GE ’sChatGPT-powered Wingmate, which uses LLMs to provide relevant answers to the questions from the company’s engineers based on design and operating manuals. Now, imagine every company in the S&P 500 doing the same thing. “Search behavior already moved to a dual revenue stream: subscriptions and ads,” Salmon says.Alphabet is playing in both pools. Google One has over 100 million subscribers, and its premium version includes Alphabet’s highest-level AI functionality for $20 a month. ChatGPT’s premium product has about 10 million subscribers, Salmon estimates. Alphabet also has the advantage of experience, including years of work with its Google Brain and DeepMind AI projects and its internally developed Tensor AI hardware. And it recently purchased character.ai for $2.7 billion to help with these efforts. It has the advantage of $154 billion in operating cash it is expected to earn in 2025 as it gets ready to spend $59 billion on its AI future, similar to what Microsoft spends a year. That spending should pay off. Salmon estimates that generative AI overviews and subscriptions keep Alphabet’s Google business growing at about 10% a year on average through 2027. “New AI features in search are resulting in better engagement and higher levels of user satisfaction,” says Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, adding that structural risks to Google’s search dominance are overblown. Wedbush rates Alphabet shares a Buy and has a $210 price target.  AI might not be able to slow Google down, but the antitrust risk is real, as this past week’s decline demonstrates. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, saying that Google illegally monopolized search. This past week, the DOJ proposed a list of remedies that include selling the Chrome browser, prohibiting the ownership and control of anything that creates a preference for Google, and “restoring competition through syndication and data access”—essentially requiring the company to provide its core search index to anyone who wants it to label as their own free of cost.“We view many of the DOJ’s recommendations to restrict Google Search (and other products) as unlikely to be approved by the court, or to survive an appeals process,” writes Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who rates the stock a Buy with a $205 price target. “Beyond the reasonable ask to prohibit search distribution agreements, the DOJ remedies are, in our view, a wish-list of restrictions on Google that stray well beyond the court’s ruling.”Alphabet is fighting the ruling, but other cases loom, including one the U.S. has brought against the company over its advertising business. Appeals are likely to delay any action until 2027 at the earliest. In October, President-elect Donald Trump came out against a Google breakup in favor of making it more fair.Some changes will be offset. An end to Alphabet paying companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine could mean a loss of market share. But the company spends billions annually on search acquisition costs, including some $20 billion to Apple in 2022, according to court filings. The impact of lower revenue and expenses could, in theory, result in a near-negligible hit to earnings per share, according to Wolfe Research analyst Shweta Khajuria.Alphabet stock appears to reflect these antitrust concerns. It trades for 19.4 times earnings, below the S&P 500's 22 times and Meta Platforms' 22.9 times. \"The stock is already reflecting that risk,\" says Putnam Investments' Ellen Hazen, who comments that her firm would consider adding to its existing position if it falls back to about $170.Oakmarket Select portfolio manager Bill Nygren goes even further. He argues that Alphabet, with a market value of $2.1 trillion including cash and debt, is worth more than the sum of its parts. \"Forcing investors to recognize the value of each [business] would probably make the stock go up,\" he says.An analysis of those individual parts bears that out. Alphabet's cloud business, which could generate roughly $20 billion in 2025 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, would be worth $325 billion at a 16 times multiple, similar to what Amazon and Microsoft fetch. YouTube would be worth up to $800 billion if it traded at 22 times Ebitda, the average of what Meta and Netflix change hands for.Waymo is a little harder to value. Uber Technologies is valued at $150 billion, while Wall Street valuations for Tesla's self-driving business range from $100 billion to trillions, even though the company has yet to complete a single fully autonomous ride. Alphabet's Waymo completes 150,000 self-driving cab rides each week, making it a real self-driving player. It is reasonable to value it at about $300 billion, though some bulls think it's worth far more than that: Deepwater Asset Management's Gene Munster put Waymo's valuation at $350 billion to $850 billion by 2030 and expects a spinoff in the next two to four years.That leaves Alphabet's search business worth roughly $550 billion, adjusted for its $117 billion in net cash and investments, or about five times Ebitda. Nygren, who doesn't include Waymo, calculates that Google Search trades at about 11 times earnings. That is enough of a margin of safety for him, given what Alphabet is facing.As for upside, it's easy to justify a $260 stock price for the company based on the sum of its parts, up 55% from Thursday's close. Or Alphabet could be recognized as one of the world's dominant tech companies. Getting back to its historical premium relative to the market implies that Alphabet shares would trade for about 26 times earnings and be worth about $234 a share, up 40%. \"We think of it as a high-multiple tech stock that isn't [priced] like one,\" says Nygren.For Alphabet, AI isn't the end of the line -- it's the next step to a brighter future.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":69,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"allBottom":false,"essenBottom":false}