Alphabet (GOOG) Stock on December 2, 2025: AI Breakthroughs, Buffett’s Bet and Wall Street’s 2026 Forecast

Alphabet Inc.’s Class C shares (NASDAQ: GOOG) enter December trading near record highs, riding a powerful AI-driven rally and fresh upgrades from Wall Street. As of the December 1 close, GOOG traded at $315.12, giving Alphabet a market capitalization of about $3.8 trillion and leaving the stock just below its 52‑week high around $329. ^[1]

Yet despite a roughly 70% gain in 2025 and nearly 49% in just the last quarter, many analysts still see Alphabet as a core AI and cloud holding—even as some price targets now imply limited near‑term upside at today’s levels. ^[2]

Below is a detailed look at where GOOG stands today, what’s in the latest December 2 news flow, and how forecasts for 2026 are evolving.

1. Alphabet (GOOG) Stock Today: Price, Valuation and Performance

Key snapshot (data as of December 1, 2025, U.S. close): ^[3]

• Price: $315.12 (–1.56% on the day)
• Pre‑market (Dec 2, early a.m.): about $316.40–$316.50, modestly higher
• Market cap: ≈ $3.8 trillion
• Day’s range: $313.98 – $319.63
• 52‑week range: $142.66 – $328.67
• Trailing P/E: ~31×
• Forward P/E: ~30×
• Dividend: $0.84 per share annually (≈0.27% yield); next ex‑dividend date is December 8, 2025
• TTM revenue and profit: about $385.5 billion in revenue and $124.3 billion in net income
• 2024 full‑year results: ~$350.0 billion revenue (+13.9% YoY) and ~$100.1 billion earnings (+35.7% YoY) ^[4]

Performance metrics from Finviz show: ^[5]

• +11.9% over the past month
• +49.0% over the past quarter
• ≈+86% over the past six months
• Roughly +70% over the past year

At these levels, Alphabet is again flirting with the $4 trillion valuation zone it nearly reached in late November, when Reuters reported that Alphabet was on the verge of becoming just the fourth company to enter the $4T club thanks to its AI‑powered rally. ^[6]

2. December 2 News: From “AI Laggard” to AI Pace‑Setter

Today’s news flow around Alphabet is dominated by one theme: AI leadership and how quickly market perception has flipped in Google’s favor.

2.1. “Once Viewed as an AI Laggard…”

A fresh article from The Motley Fool, titled “Once Viewed as an AI Laggard, This ‘Magnificent Seven’ Company May Now Be Winning the AI War” (December 2), argues that Alphabet has moved from perceived underdog to front‑runner in AI. ^[7]

Key points from that analysis:

• Early in 2025, investors worried about:
  • A major U.S. Department of Justice antitrust case targeting Google’s search dominance.
  • Competitive threats from conversational AI like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
• Since then:
  • A federal judge declined to force Google to divest Chrome, easing worst‑case fears. ^[8]
  • Google’s AI Overviews (Gemini‑powered summaries at the top of search results) and the new AI Mode interface have impressed investors and major shareholders such as Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, who say these features lead users to ask richer questions and click through more often. ^[9]
  • The rollout of Gemini 3 is seen as a meaningful upgrade capable of tackling more complex queries with fewer prompts.

The article also highlights reports that Google is approaching other hyperscalers like Meta Platforms to sell its in‑house Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips, potentially targeting up to 10% of Nvidia’s AI data‑center business over time. ^[10]

2.2. The “Biggest Threat to Nvidia’s AI Dominance”

A separate December 2 piece, “This Is the Biggest Threat to Nvidia’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Dominance That Virtually No One Is Talking About,” makes the case that Alphabet, not another chipmaker, is the most underestimated competitive risk to Nvidia. ^[11]

Highlights:

• Google has been developing TPUs for internal use since 2013 and opened them to cloud customers in 2018.
• Now, Alphabet is reportedly in talks to sell billions of dollars’ worth of TPUs to Meta for its own data centers.
• Alphabet’s financial firepower is significant: in 2024 it turned about $350B of revenue into just over $100B of net income—more profit than AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm combined produced that year, according to the article. ^[12]
• Because Google Cloud is already one of the fastest‑growing major cloud providers, its infrastructure customers could naturally become chip customers, underscoring how deeply integrated Alphabet is in the AI value chain. ^[13]

2.3. OpenAI “Code Red” and the Gemini Effect

Beyond stock‑specific commentary, macro AI headlines today underscore how seriously rivals now take Google:

• The Financial Times reports that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a “code red” inside the company, refocusing efforts on improving ChatGPT as competitors like Google make rapid advances. ^[14]
• Barron’s notes in “Google Has OpenAI Rattled. Why That’s a Problem for Oracle and Microsoft” that Google’s Gemini 3 model is shaking up the AI race, potentially challenging the heavy reliance that Microsoft and Oracle have on OpenAI. ^[15]

Together, these stories paint a picture of Alphabet as a central competitive force in both AI software and hardware, not just a legacy search/ads giant.

3. Earnings and AI Fundamentals: The First $100 Billion Quarter

Alphabet’s fundamental momentum is the backbone of the bullish GOOG narrative.

3.1. Q3 2025: Record Revenue and an AI Growth Engine

For Q3 2025, Alphabet reported: ^[16]

• Revenue: ≈ $102.3 billion, up ~16% year over year and ahead of consensus (~$99.9B).
• Adjusted EPS: around $3.10, comfortably beating Wall Street estimates.
• Advertising revenue: about $74.2 billion, up 12.6% YoY as Search and YouTube both re‑accelerated.
• Google Cloud revenue: about $15.2 billion, surging ~34% YoY.
• Cloud backlog: roughly $155 billion, up 46% quarter over quarter, with AI‑related deals as a key driver.

In a blog post accompanying the Q3 earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized that this was Alphabet’s first‑ever $100 billion quarter, highlighting how revenue has doubled in just five years. He also disclosed: ^[17]

• Google’s models (e.g., Gemini) are now processing roughly 7 billion tokens per minute via APIs.
• The Gemini app has over 650 million monthly active users, with query volumes tripling from Q2 to Q3.
• Alphabet has surpassed 300 million paid subscriptions, led by Google One and YouTube Premium.

These metrics are central to the bullish case from Guggenheim and other analysts who see Alphabet as one of the strongest “AI spend‑to‑return” stories in Big Tech.

3.2. AI Infrastructure and Custom Silicon

Pichai and other executives have also stressed Alphabet’s full‑stack AI approach—from chips to models to applications. Investments include: ^[18]

• Scaling data centers with both Nvidia GPUs and Alphabet’s own 7th‑generation TPUs (“Ironwood”), which are expected to be generally available soon.
• New A4X Max instances built on Nvidia’s latest GB300 chips for cloud customers.
• Long‑term capacity investments enabling partners like Anthropic to access up to 1 million TPUs.

Recent supply‑chain reports from DigiTimes suggest that Samsung, SK Hynix and MediaTek are lining up to support Google’s TPU roadmap, including upcoming V7e AI chips, underscoring the breadth of its hardware ecosystem. ^[19]

4. Regulation: DOJ Remedies Without a Break‑Up

A major overhang for Alphabet has been the U.S. antitrust case over search. That cloud looks lighter after a pair of important 2025 decisions.

• In September 2025, Judge Amit Mehta declined to break up Alphabet or force the sale of Chrome or Android, even after previously finding Google guilty of illegal monopolization in search. Reuters estimated that the ruling added roughly $210 billion in market value as Alphabet shares jumped more than 9% on the news. ^[20]
• The U.S. Department of Justice simultaneously won what it called “significant remedies”:
  • Google is barred from exclusive contracts related to Search, Chrome, Google Assistant and the Gemini app.
  • It must share portions of its search index and user‑interaction data with rivals and offer search and search‑text‑ads syndication services to enable more competition. ^[21]

For investors, the takeaway is that Google avoids a break‑up, but lives with ongoing regulatory constraints and forced data‑sharing that could, over time, lower its structural advantage in search—especially as generative AI alternatives gain traction.

5. Berkshire Hathaway’s New Stake and the March Toward $4 Trillion

Another major story supporting GOOG in late 2025 is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway taking a sizeable stake in Alphabet.

• A November SEC filing revealed that Berkshire purchased about 17.85 million Alphabet shares, worth roughly $4.3–$4.9 billion, making Alphabet around its 10th‑largest U.S. equity position. ^[22]
• Reuters reported that the disclosure sent Alphabet’s shares up more than 5% in pre‑market trading, and many observers framed the investment as one of Buffett’s final big bets before stepping down as CEO at the end of 2025. ^[23]
• Coverage from outlets like LiveMint noted that Berkshire views Alphabet as “priced more modestly” than other AI leaders: trading at roughly 25× forward earnings vs. ~30× for Nvidia and ~29× for Microsoft, based on LSEG data at the time. ^[24]

Combined with Alphabet’s own rally, Reuters later highlighted that Alphabet was closing in on a $4 trillion valuation by November 24, fueled by AI optimism and big institutional buying. ^[25]

For many long‑term investors, Berkshire’s entry serves as a high‑profile validation that Alphabet remains attractive even after a massive 2025 run.

6. Wall Street Forecasts for Alphabet Class C (GOOG)

6.1. Consensus Ratings and Price Targets

Across the street, sentiment on GOOG remains broadly positive—but expectations are now more nuanced.

MarketBeat (GOOG): ^[26]

• Consensus rating:Buy
• Detailed breakdown: 7 Strong Buys, 29 Buys, 3 Holds, 2 Sells
• Average price target:$307.22, slightly below the current price—implying limited near‑term upside at today’s valuation.
• Expected earnings growth: about 15% in the coming year (from ~$8.89 to ~$10.23 EPS).
• GOOG’s P/E (~31×) is noted as cheaper than both the broader market (~39×) and the average computer & tech stock (~82×), suggesting that while Alphabet is richly valued on an absolute basis, it remains less expensive than many AI peers.

StockAnalysis (GOOG): ^[27]

• 43 analysts tracked.
• Average rating:“Buy”.
• 12‑month target:$297.10, about –5.7% below the latest price—a sign that many analysts think the stock has “run ahead” of near‑term fundamentals.

Nasdaq / Fintel (GOOGL, but largely applicable to GOOG): ^[28]

• As of mid‑November, the average one‑year target for Alphabet was about $309.15, roughly 3.5% below the stock’s then‑recent close.
• Target range is wide, from about $186.85 on the low end to $367.50 on the high end, reflecting very different views on how sustainable AI growth and margins will be.
• Institutional interest is deep: over 7,100 funds report positions in Alphabet, with an average portfolio weight near 1.8%, and options positioning skewing slightly bullish (put/call ratio ≈0.79).

6.2. Guggenheim’s New $375 Bull Case

The biggest headline upgrade this week comes from Guggenheim:

• On December 1, Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris raised his price target to $375 (from $330) and reiterated a Buy rating on Alphabet, calling it one of the best AI “spend‑to‑return” stories in Big Tech. ^[29]
• He specifically cited:
  • “Exceptional” Google Cloud backlog growth, driven by AI workloads.
  • YouTube’s continued leadership in streaming, with improving monetization.
  • Gemini’s emergence as a leading AI platform, with strong adoption metrics.
• Morris argues that consensus may underestimate Google Cloud’s long‑run revenue potential by about $40 billion, based on current backlog trends, and raised his 2026 and 2027 revenue and profit forecasts accordingly. ^[30]

In short: consensus models are cautious after a huge 2025 run, but high‑profile analysts like Guggenheim are still raising their longer‑term targets, anchored in AI and cloud.

7. Class C (GOOG) vs. Class A (GOOGL): Does the Share Class Matter?

Alphabet has two main publicly traded classes:

• GOOG (Class C):Non‑voting shares, the focus of this article.
• GOOGL (Class A): Shares with one vote each.

In practice:

• The economic exposure is essentially identical—both classes participate pro rata in earnings, dividends and buybacks.
• The price gap between GOOG and GOOGL is usually tiny and often driven by liquidity or technical factors.
• Alphabet’s founders also hold Class B super‑voting shares that maintain long‑term control of the company’s direction.

For most public investors, the choice between GOOG and GOOGL is largely about preference and index inclusion, not fundamentally different value. Many funds hold both.

8. Big Tech, Big Capex: The AI Spending Question

One key debate now shaping Alphabet’s 2026 outlook is how sustainable the AI infrastructure spending boom will be.

• A Bloomberg analysis, “Big Tech’s ‘Spend Little, Earn Lots’ Formula Is Threatened by AI” (December 2), notes that for roughly two decades, large tech firms enjoyed a model of explosive revenue growth with relatively restrained capex. AI changes that dynamic: hyperscalers like Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta may collectively spend hundreds of billions of dollars per year on AI chips, data centers and networking. ^[31]
• Alphabet has already raised its 2025 capital‑expenditure guidance to the low‑90‑billion‑dollar range, largely to fund AI infrastructure, according to its Q3 disclosures and Reuters coverage. ^[32]

If AI revenue growth (from Cloud, subscriptions, ads and new services) keeps pace with this spending, it could justify further multiple expansion. If it doesn’t, Alphabet’s margins and free cash flow could come under pressure.

9. Key Catalysts for GOOG in 2026

Based on current news and forecasts, investors watching GOOG into 2026 are focused on several catalysts:

1. Monetizing Gemini and AI Search
   • Continued rollout and refinement of AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search.
   • Potential incremental monetization via higher‑value ad formats around AI answers, or subscription‑style AI features layered onto Google Workspace and consumer products. ^[33]
2. Google Cloud’s AI Flywheel
   • Converting today’s $155B Cloud backlog—much of it AI‑related—into recognized revenue with healthy margins. ^[34]
   • Expansion of multicloud offerings, such as the recently announced networking collaboration between Google Cloud and AWS, which aims to make it easier for enterprises to run workloads across providers. ^[35]
3. TPU and AI Chip Commercialization
   • Formalizing large‑scale TPU supply deals with outside hyperscalers like Meta and potentially others. ^[36]
   • How quickly Google can ramp its Ironwood TPUs and future chips while keeping costs under control. ^[37]
4. YouTube, Subscriptions and Advertising Mix
   • YouTube’s ability to sustain its lead in streaming while integrating AI tools for creators and advertisers. ^[38]
   • Growth in the 300M+ paid subscriptions base (YouTube Premium, Google One, etc.), which are less cyclical than ads. ^[39]
5. Regulatory and Legal Developments
   • Implementation details of DOJ remedies, further global antitrust or privacy actions, and potential additional constraints on data usage or app bundling. ^[40]
6. Macro and Rates
   • Big‑cap growth and AI stocks have been highly sensitive to interest‑rate expectations. Any shift in rate‑cut timing or economic outlook will likely ripple through GOOG’s valuation.

10. Risks That Could Challenge the Alphabet Bull Case

While the story around GOOG is compelling, several risks stand out:

1. Valuation Risk
   • After a ~70% gain in 2025, consensus targets from MarketBeat, StockAnalysis and Fintel now cluster slightly below the current price, suggesting a lot of good news is already priced in. ^[41]
2. AI Capex vs. Profitability
   • AI infrastructure spending could continue to climb faster than revenue, compressing margins—exactly the dynamic Bloomberg warns could break Big Tech’s historic “spend little, earn lots” formula. ^[42]
3. Competition from OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia and Others
   • While today’s headlines emphasize Google’s comeback, the competitive field is fierce:
     • OpenAI is refocusing on ChatGPT quality and speed under internal “code red” conditions. ^[43]
     • Microsoft and Oracle remain deeply invested in OpenAI and are unlikely to cede ground quietly. ^[44]
     • Nvidia continues to innovate in AI hardware, even as Google’s TPUs nibble at its moat. ^[45]
4. Regulatory and Political Risk
   • The DOJ case may be settled for now, but regulators globally continue to scrutinize Alphabet on competition, privacy and app store practices, potentially leading to more fines or operational constraints. ^[46]
5. Execution Risk in New Lines of Business
   • Businesses like Waymo, health‑tech (Verily) and other “Other Bets” still consume capital and may take years to show significant profit contributions.

11. Bottom Line: Is Alphabet (GOOG) Still Attractive After a 70% Run?

Alphabet’s Class C shares have staged one of the strongest rallies in Big Tech this year, driven by:

• A blowout first $100 billion quarter with double‑digit growth across Search, YouTube and Cloud. ^[47]
• A shifting AI narrative that increasingly casts Gemini and Google Cloud as credible leaders rather than laggards. ^[48]
• Berkshire Hathaway’s high‑profile stake, giving long‑term investors additional confidence. ^[49]

At the same time, most Street price targets now sit only modestly above—or even below—the current price, suggesting the easy money from re‑rating may have already been made, even as select analysts like Guggenheim argue there is still substantial upside if AI‑driven cloud and chip revenues materialize as hoped. ^[50]

For investors and traders watching Alphabet on December 2, 2025, the core question is no longer whether Google is relevant in AI—it clearly is—but how much AI growth, margin expansion and chip monetization are already priced into a $3.8 trillion valuation.

Important note: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.

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