Google is now the fourth most valuable public company in the world, just behind Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, with a market capitalization of just over $3 trillion and overtook Apple earlier this year for first place.
This isn’t the first time Alphabet has faced the $2 trillion club. The company briefly hit the threshold in November 2021 and earlier this month, but closed above it for the first time on Friday. according to Bloomberg.
The news followed Alphabet First Quarter Earnings Report Thursday, where revenues beat analysts’ expectations thanks to the success of Google’s search engine. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichar also highlighted the contributions of Google Cloud, which has been equipped with generative AI services through Google’s AI model, Gemini.
“In Cloud, we’ve announced more than 1,000 new products and features in the last 8 months. At Google Cloud Next, more than 300 customers and partners talked about their successes in generative AI with Google Cloud, including global brands like Bayer, Cintas, Mercedes Benz, Walmart and many others,” Pichai told investors on the call.
Pichai also said Google was well “positioned for the next wave of AI innovation and opportunities ahead,” and reminded investors that the company has been “AI-first” since 2016.
The company also delighted investors by announcing it would expand its stock buyback program by $70 billion.
Alphabet has been through some tough times over the past year despite last week’s success. It has faced increasing difficulties with its AI offerings, including pausing its image generator after being criticized for being too woke.
Still, Alphabet is betting on AI as the key to its business growth and is willing to spend big to compete. Earlier this month, it announced that it would develop its own central processing unit called Axion to facilitate the training of complex AI models.
Alphabet did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
businessinsider
