New York, Feb 2, 2026, 18:37 EST — After-hours
- GOOG ended higher on Monday and held near session highs after the bell.
- A big funding update at Waymo put Alphabet’s “Other Bets” back on the radar.
- Traders are bracing for a sharp swing around this week’s earnings report.
Alphabet’s Class C shares (GOOG) were up 1.9% at $344.90 in late trading on Monday, after moving between $334.00 and $346.63. Trading volume was about 22.7 million shares.
The move comes days before the Google parent reports results, with investors looking for proof that new AI features can lift revenue without a bigger jump in costs. Capital expenditures, or capex, sit in the spotlight because they fund data centers and chips.
Options trading — contracts used to hedge or bet on price moves — implies the stock could rise or fall by a bit more than 5% from Monday’s close by the end of the week, data cited by Investopedia showed. That would put the implied range around $328 to $362.
Waymo said it raised $16 billion in a round valuing it at $126 billion post-money, meaning after the new cash comes in. The financing was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital, and Waymo said it now provides more than 400,000 rides a week after delivering 15 million rides in 2025. Konstantine Buhler said, “Waymo has moved beyond research milestones to achieve operational excellence, tripling its weekly paid rides in just one year.” Waymo
Waymo is the only operator in the U.S. offering paid robotaxi rides with no safety driver or in-vehicle attendant, but rivals are moving faster. Tesla has made robotaxis a core priority, while Amazon unit Zoox has offered free rides in parts of San Francisco and around the Las Vegas Strip. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last week it opened an investigation after a Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in California.
U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday, with the S&P 500 up 0.54% and the Nasdaq up 0.56%, as chip and other AI-linked names led the gains. “The fundamentals are good and earnings are strong,” said Tim Ghriskey, a senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. Reuters
Jefferies kept a buy rating on Alphabet and raised its target price to $400 from $365, according to a note cited by MarketScreener. The call landed as investors repositioned into the earnings print.
Alphabet’s Class C shares, which carry no voting rights, usually track the price of its voting Class A stock. They trade under GOOG, while Class A trades as GOOGL.
But the stock has little room for missteps. A softer outlook for advertising or cloud, or another spike in spending, could hit shares, and any setback in autonomous driving could weigh on sentiment.
Investors now turn to Alphabet’s fourth-quarter report due after the market close on Wednesday, Feb. 4, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. Alphabet said it will p
ost the earnings release on its investor relations site before the call.
