We recently published a list of Top 10 AI News You Shouldn’t Miss. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stands against other top AI news you shouldn’t miss.
All everyone could talk about in the technical AI landscape these days is DeepSeek-R1, a Chinese open-source LLM that analysts believe can give major American AI companies a run for their money. Why is DeepSeek making waves and why is it called a breakthrough in the AI race?
DeepSeek AI model is several times cheaper to use for professional purposes when compared to its American counterparts including OpenAI’s o1 model. Media reports also suggest the model beat almost all key AI models in the industry by significant margins.
CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa explained what makes these Chinese models a challenge for US tech companies:
“The cost, I mean, these models coming out of China are just built at a fraction of the price when you think about OpenAI. That’s spending $5 billion a year, burning through billions of dollars a year. These models, the DeepSeek for example, they say they built it for less than $6 million. ByteDance as well, you know, shows that it was built and you can access it at much, much lower prices. So, this really turns on sort of this truth that we have thought about generative AI for the last few years—that you need hundreds of millions of dollars to develop bigger and better models. What the Chinese labs and companies are doing is they’re going straight to the frontier. They’re building with sort of infrastructure and outputs that are already out there, built in many cases by American companies and startups, and they’re improving on it, they’re innovating on it, and producing models that are just as good, in some cases, at a fraction of the cost.”
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A laptop and phone open to Google’s services in an everyday setting.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 160
Joe Tigay from Equity Armor Investments said in a latest program on Schwab Network that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is one of the best AI stocks because of the data the company has.
“They have the most data, in my opinion. They have the best stores of data, and they are going to be putting it to good use. That is the name of the game for AI. They will be profiting off of this data because they have the search component, which is their core business.
So, for me, I think they are best positioned to utilize this new revolution. And I think it’s attractively priced here to do so.”
The market has been ignoring Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s key secondary businesses and the stock remains undervalued despite concerns around AI search and regulatory onslaught.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s secondary ventures in AI, autonomous driving, and other areas are making solid progress, especially in the Waymo robotaxi segment. With the 2025 EPS forecast at around $9, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) could realistically achieve earnings closer to $10 if it maintains its historical outperformance rate. At a projected $10 EPS, Google’s forward P/E multiple would be approximately 17, a relatively low valuation for a diversified market leader.
What are the key drivers for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)?
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) remains on track to reach a $100 billion revenue run rate from YouTube Ads and Google Cloud by the end of 2024. In its autonomous driving division, Waymo has shown notable progress, with paid autonomous rides growing 200% quarter-over-quarter to 150,000 weekly rides as of late October, thanks to a fleet of 700 vehicles in service since August.
This growth is significant: Waymo vehicles now average about 30.6 autonomous rides per day—substantially higher than Uber’s average of 4.18 rides per driver daily, based on Uber’s 31 million daily trips and 7.4 million drivers last quarter. This performance underscores Waymo’s competitive edge in autonomous ride volume compared to traditional ride-hailing.
Google Cloud has been expanding steadily, with revenue climbing from $13.06 billion in 2020 to $33.09 billion in 2023. Notably, Google Cloud turned profitable for the first time in 2023, posting $1.72 billion in operating profit—a significant improvement from a $5.61 billion loss in 2020. This segment’s performance continues to strengthen, with the latest quarterly revenue reaching $11.35 billion, up 35% from $8.41 billion in the same period last year.
RiverPark Large Growth Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG): Google was our top detractor in the third quarter despite reporting second quarter results that were generally in line with expectations. The company reported slightly better revenue growth in Search, which grew 14% and continues to be resilient in the face of AI challengers, and Google Cloud, which grew 29% in the quarter. Service operating income margins of 40% and Cloud operating income margins of 11% were also both ahead of investors’ expectations as management’s cost-efficiency efforts drove operating leverage. YouTube revenue growth was slightly below expectations (+13% v. +16%) driven by tougher year-over-year comparisons and some general weakness in the Brand Advertising vertical. Finally, Cap Ex in the quarter of $13.2 billion was more than expected and likely the driver of the weakness in the stock as investors grapple with how much infrastructure investment will be required to achieve Google’s AI goals.
With its high margin business model (44% EBITDA margins last quarter), continued strength across its core Search and YouTube franchises, and continued growth and expanding profitability in its still relatively small Cloud business, we continue to view Alphabet as among the best-positioned secular growth franchises in the market. Additionally, GOOG shares trade at a compelling 19.5x the Street’s 2025 EPS estimate, a discount to the Russell 1000 Growth Index.”
Overall, GOOG ranks 1st on our list of top AI news you shouldn’t miss. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOG, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.