Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Price Today, Nov. 18, 2025: Buffett’s Big Bet, AI Bubble Fears, and What to Watch Before the Bell

Alphabet stock heads into Tuesday’s U.S. session near record territory, riding a fresh endorsement from Warren Buffett while its own CEO warns that no company is safe if an AI bubble bursts. Here’s what traders and investors should know about Google‑parent Alphabet (tickers GOOGL and GOOG) before the market opens today.

Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) stock price before the open

Where the stock is right now

Monday’s close (Nov. 17, 2025): Alphabet Class A (GOOGL) finished just above $285 per share, up about 3.1% on the day, after touching an intraday record high around $293–$294. ^[1]
52‑week range: roughly $140.5 (low) to $293.95 (high), putting Alphabet just below its all‑time high band. ^[2]
Pre‑market today (Nov. 18): As of around 4:30 a.m. ET, Alphabet Class C (GOOG) was indicated near $285.79 in pre‑market trading, up only about 0.1% from Monday’s close of $285.60 – essentially flat but holding near record levels. ^[3]

Different feeds show slight variations between GOOGL and GOOG, but both classes are trading in a tight range just below recent highs.

Year‑to‑date performance

Despite today’s cautious tone in broader markets, Alphabet is still one of 2025’s standout mega‑caps:

Shares are up around 45–50% year‑to‑date, making Alphabet the best‑performing member of the “Magnificent Seven” so far this year. ^[4]

That massive run‑up is exactly why Wall Street is now obsessed with one question: does Buffett’s vote of confidence outweigh mounting fears of an AI‑driven tech bubble?

Buffett’s surprise Alphabet stake is still driving the narrative

The biggest catalyst for Alphabet right now is still Warren Buffett’s first‑ever position in Google, revealed in Berkshire Hathaway’s latest 13F filing.

Key details:

Berkshire bought roughly 17.8–17.9 million Class A shares of Alphabet in Q3, a stake worth about $4.3–$4.9 billion at recent prices. ^[5]
The position is now Berkshire’s 10th‑largest holding and its third “Magnificent Seven” bet, alongside Apple and Amazon. ^[6]
At the same time, Berkshire trimmed its Apple stake by around 15%, reinforcing the idea that Alphabet is now one of Buffett’s favored big‑tech names heading into his planned retirement at the end of 2025. ^[7]

Markets loved it:

Alphabet shares jumped roughly 3–6% on Monday, hitting fresh record territory after the stake was disclosed, even as major U.S. indices finished sharply lower. ^[8]
International coverage from outlets like the Economic Times and Fox Business highlighted Buffett’s move as a powerful endorsement of Alphabet’s AI strategy, describing investors as “stunned” by a rare new tech bet from historically cautious Berkshire. ^[9]

Analysts note that Alphabet now looks like a classic Buffett stock: dominant franchise, enormous cash flow, and a valuation multiple lower than some AI peers such as Microsoft and Nvidia, even after its big rally. ^[10]

For today’s session, the Buffett headline is still providing a psychological floor under the stock: if one of the world’s most conservative value investors is comfortable buying Alphabet at these levels, that sets a reference point for many institutional investors.

AI momentum: Cloud growth, new products, and a fresh upgrade

Buffett’s stake wouldn’t matter much if Alphabet’s fundamentals weren’t cooperating – but they are.

Recent earnings and AI‑driven growth

Alphabet’s recent results show why so much capital is crowding into the name:

Q3 2025 revenue came in around $102 billion, up roughly 16% year‑on‑year, with earnings per share beating expectations (about $2.87 vs. $2.29 consensus). ^[11]
Google Cloud continues to be a star, with operating margins climbing strongly as scale benefits kick in. ^[12]
Alphabet ended the recent quarter with nearly $100 billion in cash and securities, giving it enormous flexibility to keep pouring money into AI infrastructure. ^[13]

AI remains the center of that spending: recent commentary from both Alphabet and independent analysts highlights rapid adoption of Gemini and AI‑enhanced search, plus growing demand for Google’s custom AI chips (TPUs) in the cloud. ^[14]

New AI products: Travel, shopping, and Waymo

Alphabet is also pushing hard on AI‑powered consumer products:

A widely‑covered AI travel planning tool now lets users ask for trip ideas in an AI mode, build full itineraries, and book via partners like Expedia, Booking Holdings, and Trip.com – a launch that hit online travel stocks yesterday. ^[15]
Alphabet has rolled out AI booking features for restaurants, events, and spas, and is expanding AI shopping tools that let users browse and buy products through conversational queries with prices and reviews surfaced automatically. ^[16]
Waymo, the self‑driving unit, is moving into more complex routes, including freeway segments in areas like the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, with plans to extend to more cities. ^[17]

On the enterprise side, Alphabet’s growth is tied to infrastructure:

Its growth fund CapitalG just led a $140 million round in Celero, a startup building advanced networking chips to link AI data centers across large distances – another sign of Alphabet’s deep involvement in the AI hardware stack that sits behind its software products. ^[18]

Wall Street reaction: Loop Capital upgrade

The Street is responding to this AI momentum:

Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from Hold to Buy today, lifting its price target from $260 to $320. ^[19]
The firm said Google’s core search business “remains healthy” despite AI Overviews and new interfaces, with traffic to Gemini roughly doubling year‑on‑year, and argued that investors are only starting to appreciate the long‑term earnings power of Google Cloud and Alphabet’s AI chips. ^[20]

Other recent research from MarketBeat and TipRanks shows:

A broadly bullish analyst skew – dozens of Buy or Strong Buy ratings versus a relatively small number of Holds. ^[21]
Average price targets clustered in the low‑ to mid‑$300s, implying high‑single‑digit to low‑double‑digit upside from current levels. ^[22]

Taken together, today’s upgrade and recent AI product news are important bullish counterweights to a skittish macro backdrop.

Pichai’s AI bubble warning: “No company is going to be immune”

In a fresh interview published today, CEO Sundar Pichai added a far more cautious note.

Speaking to the BBC, Pichai said the current AI investment wave is an “extraordinary moment” but acknowledged clear “elements of irrationality” in the market, echoing the “irrational exuberance” language of the dot‑com era. ^[23]
Crucially for investors, he warned that if an AI bubble bursts, “no company is going to be immune, including us.” ^[24]

He also underscored two longer‑term issues:

Valuations and bubble risk
Regulators and analysts in both the U.S. and U.K. have started to flag AI valuations as potentially stretched, even as Alphabet’s own stock is up about 46% this year on AI optimism. ^[25]
Energy use and climate targets
Pichai noted the “immense” energy needs of large‑scale AI, suggesting Alphabet’s timeline for reaching net‑zero emissions will likely slip as it builds out more compute. ^[26]

For today’s trade, the CEO’s comments matter because they:

Reinforce market fears that AI winners like Alphabet could be vulnerable if growth expectations reset.
Make it harder to brush off recent volatility as just noise: when your own CEO is openly discussing bubble risk, traders listen.

Macro backdrop: tech wobble, Nvidia nerves, and crypto stress

Alphabet’s pre‑market tone can’t be read in isolation; the broader risk backdrop is fragile.

U.S. markets yesterday

On Monday, the Dow fell about 550 points (~1.2%), the S&P 500 lost roughly 0.9%, and the Nasdaq dropped around 0.8%. ^[27]
It was the first close below the 50‑day moving average for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since late April, a technical warning sign that the recent AI‑led rally may be tiring. ^[28]
Bitcoin slid to about $91,900, its lowest level since early May, while CNN’s Fear & Greed Index dropped into the “extreme fear” zone, signaling that risk appetite is deteriorating. ^[29]

Asia and global sentiment this morning

Asian markets traded sharply lower overnight, with a 1.8% drop in the MSCI Asia‑Pacific ex‑Japan index, a roughly 3% slide in Japan’s Nikkei, and heavy selling in AI‑linked chip names ahead of Nvidia’s earnings. ^[30]
Reuters noted that a basket of top Asia AI stocks is down about 15% since late October, even after a huge rally earlier in the year, as investors question how sustainable AI‑driven spending really is. ^[31]

In other words, Alphabet is trying to rally into a risk‑off tape where investors are increasingly sensitive to valuation and AI hype—exactly the themes Pichai just highlighted.

Institutional flows, legal noise, and regulation

Beyond Buffett, a series of smaller but notable developments is shaping how “smart money” and regulators view Alphabet.

Large holders are still building positions

Recent 13F and fund disclosures show:

Sweden’s Andra AP Fonden reported Alphabet as a roughly $52.8 million position, increasing its stake slightly in the most recent quarter, with institutional ownership around 40% of the float. ^[32]
Other institutions including Atlantic Union Bankshares and EFG Asset Management North America disclosed boosts to their Alphabet holdings, while some firms such as Anderson Financial Strategies trimmed positions in GOOG. ^[33]

Overall, the flow picture still leans bullish: new positions and additions outnumber outright exits, which tends to support the stock on dips.

Legal and regulatory overhangs

Alphabet has asked a Delaware court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit from a conservative influencer who claims one of Google’s AI tools generated false and damaging statements about them, highlighting new legal risks tied to generative AI outputs. ^[34]
In Europe, Google has proposed changes to its ad‑tech operations after facing a €3.42 billion EU fine, aiming to address competition concerns without breaking up the business. ^[35]

These issues aren’t front‑page movers for today’s pre‑market trade, but they are part of the long‑term risk mosaic that investors need to keep in mind as valuations climb.

Key numbers for Alphabet stock today

Here are some headline metrics traders and investors may want at their fingertips:

Last regular close (Mon, Nov. 17, 2025):
– GOOGL: ~$285 per share, up ~3.1% on the day. ^[36]
Today’s pre‑market (GOOG, ~4:30 a.m. ET):
– Around $285.79, up about 0.07% vs Monday’s close of $285.60 (very light move so far). ^[37]
52‑week low / high: roughly $140.53 / $293.95. ^[38]
Market cap: estimates vary slightly by source, but Alphabet is valued around the $3–3.5 trillion mark, putting it firmly among the world’s most valuable companies. ^[39]
Valuation: trailing earnings multiple in the mid‑20s, cheaper than some AI leaders but rich versus the broader market. ^[40]
Dividend:
– Quarterly $0.21 per share for all share classes (A, B, C).
– Ex‑dividend date: December 8, 2025.
– Payment date: December 15, 2025.
– Yield: roughly 0.3%, with a payout ratio around 8% of earnings. ^[41]
Analyst backdrop: dozens of Buy and Strong Buy ratings; fresh Loop Capital target at $320, plus a range of other targets in the low‑ to mid‑$300s. ^[42]

These levels will move as liquidity builds into the open, but they frame the risk‑reward debate heading into today’s session.

What to watch in Alphabet stock today

For short‑term traders

Can Alphabet hold the $280s?
After Monday’s gap higher, watch whether GOOGL/GOOG holds above the mid‑$270s–$280 area if the broader market stays under pressure. A quick reversal below that zone would signal profit‑taking after the Buffett headlines.
Does it re‑test or break the record high?
The prior intraday peak near $294 is a key psychological level. A clean break with volume would reinforce the bullish thesis; repeated failures there could invite short‑term sellers. ^[43]
Nvidia and AI peers as a read‑through
Nvidia’s upcoming earnings and the recent sell‑off in AI hardware names are likely to influence sentiment in Alphabet and other AI beneficiaries throughout the day. ^[44]

For swing traders and medium‑term investors

Follow‑through on the Buffett trade
Is Monday’s spike the start of a new leg higher or a one‑day “Buffett pop”? Watch positioning data, options activity, and whether other high‑profile investors publicly echo Berkshire’s move. ^[45]
Street revisions to estimates and targets
Loop Capital’s upgrade may not be the last; continued positive revisions to earnings estimates or price targets into the $320–$330 range and beyond would support the bull case. ^[46]
AI monetization vs. cannibalization
Near‑term, the key fundamental question is whether AI Overviews and Gemini grow the pie or cannibalize high‑margin search ads. The fact that Loop Capital explicitly played down cannibalization fears today is notable – but skeptics remain. ^[47]

For long‑term investors

Sustainability of AI capex
Alphabet continues to spend tens of billions on data centers and AI chips while warning that energy needs may delay net‑zero goals. The long‑term bull case assumes that AI‑driven revenue and margins will more than offset these costs; a bubble burst could challenge that assumption. ^[48]
Regulatory & legal risk
From EU ad‑tech scrutiny to emerging AI defamation suits, the regulatory backdrop is getting more complex. None of today’s headlines look existential, but they can shape valuations and capital allocation over time. ^[49]
Capital returns and shareholder friendliness
Between the $0.21 quarterly dividend, sizeable stock buybacks announced earlier this year, and Buffett’s presence on the cap table, Alphabet is increasingly behaving like a mature, shareholder‑friendly mega‑cap rather than a pure growth story. ^[50]

Bottom line: A tug‑of‑war between endorsement and excess

Going into today’s U.S. market open, Alphabet sits at the intersection of three powerful forces:

A high‑conviction vote of confidence from Warren Buffett and a long list of institutional buyers. ^[51]
Fundamentals that look strong, especially in AI‑driven cloud and search, backed by new upgrades like Loop Capital’s fresh $320 target. ^[52]
A CEO and global markets that are openly worried about AI froth, valuations, and the possibility of a bubble. ^[53]

If you’re watching Alphabet today, the key is to recognize that both stories are true at once: this is one of the strongest, best‑positioned AI platforms in the world, and it’s also trading in an environment where even its own CEO is talking about bubble risk.

As always, this overview is informational only and not financial advice. Your decision to buy, sell, or sit on the sidelines should depend on your time horizon, risk tolerance, and overall portfolio—not just what Alphabet is doing in the pre‑market on a single November morning.

Alphabet is well positioned with AI applications, says GMO's Tom Hancock