5. Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 165
Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the seventh biggest holding of KraneShares Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF (AGIX).
Deepwater’s Gene Munster thinks that Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) is going to win the “AI arms race.” While talking to CNBC, the analyst said that Google search business is “intact, no need to worry.” Munster’s thesis is based on his in-depth testing of several large language models and chatbots including Google’s Gemini. Munster also thinks other chatbots do not offer a strong imperative for users to switch from Google search as of yet.
Wedbush’s Dan Ives in a fresh note named Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as one of the stocks that can benefit from the AI boom.
According to a latest UBS report, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) falls in all three layers of the AI value chain – enabling, intelligence and application layer. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is an AI enabling player because of its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and Google Cloud Platform, while Gemini makes it a key player in the intelligence layer. On the application layer, UBS believes Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has an edge with its Duet AI assistant and advertising. All these catalysts make Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) a company that could benefit from the $1.2 trillion AI opportunity by 2027, UBS said.
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) bulls believe the company is just getting started with AI product launches. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is indeed in a strong position to develop an AI ecosystem around its products. For example, demos have shown that Gemini app will help people perform daily personal tasks like note-taking, appointments, writing, etc. These features could easily be integrated with other Google apps. Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) app urges users to sign up for ‘Google One AI Premium’ plan, which has a $19.99 price tag. Google saw advertising revenue accelerate in Q1 2024, boosted by YouTube in particular growing by almost 21% last quarter. Analysts also believe Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in a strong position to offset any headwinds or lost market share in Google search with YouTube, which saw its ads revenue reach $8.1 billion in the first quarter, a 21% growth. Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) net income in the period came in at $23.66 billion, up 57%, or $1.89 per share.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“The top absolute contributors were Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft, and Amazon. Turning briefly to positions we do own, Alphabet represented our top absolute contributor. The stock responded positively to attractive across-the-board results that beat expectations, with excitement around GenAI driving growth in its cloud business. Additionally, the company introduced a dividend and announced an additional $70B share buyback, beginning to show prudent capital allocation discipline in our view.”
