NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 16:34 EST — After-hours
- Alphabet’s non-voting Class C shares rose about 1% after the close, trading around $326
- Company set Feb. 4 for fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results and a conference call
- EU antitrust clock on Alphabet’s $32 billion Wiz deal now runs to Feb. 10
Alphabet’s non-voting Class C shares (GOOG) rose 1.1% in after-hours trade on Thursday to $326.01, following a choppy session that had the stock swinging between $322.23 and $329.88.
The move comes as investors hunt for the next obvious catalyst for a stock caught between two big questions: how fast Google can keep its ad machine growing, and how much it will need to spend to stay in the AI race. The next few weeks may get choppy, with regulators and earnings both on the calendar.
Spending is the other side of it. CFO Anat Ashkenazi told investors on the company’s last earnings call that Alphabet expected “a significant increase” in capital expenditures in 2026. Depending on how big that jump looks, it could end up shifting how the stock gets valued. 1
Alphabet said it will review its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on Feb. 4, with the earnings release due out ahead of its 4:30 p.m. Eastern conference call. 2
On the Street, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to “overweight” and raised its price target to $370, arguing the company is positioned to benefit across the AI stack. Analyst Deepak Mathivanan called Alphabet the “king of all AI trades” in a note. (“Overweight” is a broker rating that signals an expectation of outperformance versus peers or a benchmark.) 3
Regulators aren’t out of the picture. EU antitrust officials said they will decide by Feb. 10 whether to clear Alphabet’s $32 billion bid for cybersecurity firm Wiz, or open a deeper probe — a process that can drag on for months and sometimes ends in concessions. If it goes through, it would be Alphabet’s biggest deal and would sharpen its cloud security pitch against Amazon and Microsoft. 4
In a separate Europe thread, Big Tech looks likely to sidestep the EU’s planned Digital Networks Act, avoiding hard new obligations, as large U.S. platforms are instead funneled into a voluntary setup, sources told Reuters. 5
But after the stock’s sharp run-up, it’s become jumpy at any hint that AI features are pinching ad pricing, or that expenses are rising faster than revenue. A tougher-than-expected stance from regulators on Wiz would add another pressure point.
Next up is Feb. 4, when Alphabet reports. Investors will be watching for ad trends, cloud demand and how big the 2026 spending step-up looks. Then the EU’s Wiz decision deadline comes due on Feb. 10.
