NEW YORK, July 17, 2026, 05:08 EDT
- U.S. cash markets remain shut, while Nasdaq premarket trading continues.
- Alphabet shares ended Thursday down 4.44% at $354.46 and slipped a further 1.82% in premarket trading before Friday’s session.
- Alphabet will report second-quarter results on July 22, with the earnings call set for 4:30 p.m. EDT.
Alphabet is estimated to have lost nearly $200 billion in market value on Thursday, according to early calculations. News of a Gemini delay came as technology stocks faced widespread selling.
The 4.44% drop matched 84% of the movement options had priced ahead of earnings. This also topped Alphabet’s projected 2026 capital expenditure range of $180 billion to $190 billion.
The comparison points to an execution gap, rather than just concerns over the launch date. Investors are debating if increased AI investments will deliver commercial products on schedule.
Google experienced several months of delay with the release of Gemini 3.5 Pro, Bloomberg reported. Engineers continued to work on enhancing its coding capabilities. According to Reuters, an update to its training data in late June did not meet the company’s internal targets.
CEO Sundar Pichai previously announced a June deadline. “We expect Gemini 3.5 Pro will be coming in June,” he said to investors on June 3. blog.google
Google reported it is trialling 3.5 Pro with partners and assessing an enhanced Flash model. A spokesperson stated the company is “shipping quickly” and maintaining cost efficiency in its models. Reuters
Alphabet diverged from a number of leading AI competitors in Thursday’s session:
| Company or index | Thursday close | Daily move | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ:GOOGL | $354.46 | down 4.44% | 27.0x |
| Meta Platforms Inc. NASDAQ:META | $664.54 | fell 2.46% | 24.2x |
| Nvidia Corp. NASDAQ:NVDA | $207.40 | lost 2.40% | 31.8x |
| Microsoft Corp. NASDAQ:MSFT | $401.10 | gained 1.38% | 23.9x |
| Nasdaq Composite | 25,881.95 | slipped 1.47% | — |
Figures as of Thursday’s close. P/E ratios are based on trailing results.
Alphabet underperformed the Nasdaq by 2.97 percentage points. The widespread selloff was significant. However, the difference indicates investors imposed a penalty specific to the company.
Alphabet declined by 0.8% over the prior week, from July 2 to July 10. The stock dropped another 0.8% so far this week through Thursday.
The commercial foundation is still substantial. Google Cloud set a new first-quarter revenue record at $20 billion. Backlog climbed to $462 billion, fueled in part by enterprise demand for AI.
A tougher challenge arrives next week, with Alphabet set to post its results ahead of Wednesday’s conference call.
Early consensus forecasts put second-quarter revenue at $116.8 billion, an increase of 21.1%. Revenue from Google Cloud is expected to climb 63.3% to $22.2 billion.
Market analyst Fabien Yip stated that investors are monitoring Gemini adoption, API use, and enterprise partnerships. He described these metrics as “the real test” for market-share growth. IG
Risks are present on both sides. Extending the delay may further raise concerns about Alphabet’s expenditure strategy. However, a confirmed launch date or improved Cloud performance could help narrow the discount more swiftly.
Currently, investors demand stronger evidence. Wednesday’s call needs to connect Gemini’s execution directly to revenue, rather than only highlighting model benchmarks.
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