NEW YORK, May 31, 2026, 08:24 EDT
Alphabet Class A slipped through the short trading week while broad U.S. indexes hit new highs. Now investors are watching to see if Google’s bets on cloud and AI are enough to balance out legal and interest rate worries once the market opens again.
The stock finished Friday at $380.34, off 2.51% for the day and tracking roughly 0.7% under its May 22 close. U.S. markets were closed Monday for Memorial Day. NYSE trading hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.
The move stood out on a strong day for markets. Wall Street’s main indexes closed at records Friday. The S&P 500 advanced 1.43% on the week, Nasdaq finished up 2.39%, and the Dow climbed 0.9%. Microsoft was up 5.4% Friday, but Alphabet dragged the S&P 500 communication services sector lower.
Google’s latest move is grabbing attention. The market keeps paying up for artificial intelligence, or AI — software designed to generate, analyze and automate what used to need people. But on Friday, it was clear investors aren’t pushing all the mega-cap stocks higher together.
EQT and Google Cloud are teaming up in distribution. The two said Thursday they will deliver Google’s agentic AI platform, models and architecture to over 300 EQT portfolio companies, moving beyond new consumer products this week. Agentic AI covers systems that do multi-step tasks with less input from people. “Agentic AI is an important opportunity for businesses,” said Karthik Narain, Google Cloud’s chief product and business officer. eqtgroup.com
Cloud computing is still the foundation for the bigger bull case. Alphabet reported in April that Google Cloud revenue was up 63% in the first quarter to just over $20 billion, hitting that mark for the first time. The company backlog came in above $460 billion, nearly twice as much as the previous quarter. CEO Sundar Pichai credited Alphabet’s “AI investments” for the business boost. Alphabet Investor Relations
Google’s cloud growth pushed it closer to rivals Amazon and Microsoft, though its unit still trails both in size. Reuters said Amazon and Microsoft reported cloud revenue gains of 28% and 40% for the March quarter, slower than Google Cloud. Google’s Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, also give it more traction in Nvidia’s space. “The shining star so far in tech earnings,” said Mahoney Asset Management CEO Ken Mahoney. Lee Sustar, principal analyst at Forrester, said Google was “capturing new workloads.” Reuters
Alphabet’s growth comes with a big price tag. Capex—money for things like data centers, servers, and chips—is now a core issue for the stock after the company raised its 2026 outlook to $180 billion to $190 billion. Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, said the target seems “well within the company’s spending power” because of the current revenue path. Reuters
Google wants that spending to pull in new customers. With the EQT deal, Google engineers join EQT’s AI team, and companies backed by EQT get into Google Cloud’s partner group, which includes Accenture, Deloitte and KPMG. EQT’s co-head of private capital for Europe and North America, Bert Janssens, said the deal is about helping management “future-proof their businesses.” Reuters
But there’s still plenty of risk on the table. Reuters said Monday that Handelsblatt reported the European Union plans a hefty triple-digit million euro fine for Google under the Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at big tech groups. Google is also appealing a U.S. decision that found it had illegal monopolies in online search and ads. If these court fights hit while U.S. jobs data comes in hot and bond yields move up next week, long-duration growth stocks like Alphabet could take a hit—even if AI trends stay strong.
Broader risks face markets in the coming week beyond just Google. Attention is on the June 5 U.S. payrolls report and Broadcom’s earnings, with Reuters noting that both could challenge the strong AI trade. Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, said a strong jobs number and higher inflation could “change the outlook for Fed policy.” Reuters
Alphabet’s setup is messy right now. Cloud demand, custom chips, new enterprise deals are out there, but Alphabet shares fell while the market hit highs. Monday will say if that was just a breather— or a sign investors want more AI strength for Google’s premium.
