Alphabet may eventually become the largest company in the world as it edges out rivals in artificial intelligence, powered by growth and profits from its generative AI initiatives, according to MoffettNathanson. The investment firm, which has a buy rating on Alphabet shares, raised its price target by 28%, to $295 from $230. That implies more than 19% upside from Wednesday’s close. In a 19-page report headlined, “Alphabet: World’s Most Valuable Company,” MoffettNathanson acknowledged, “this is not a statement of the present, but of what we believe should be,” referring to the company’s market capitalization. A “combination of market leadership, diversification and scale positions Alphabet not only as a winner in the GenAI era but as a company that should rightly be considered for the title of most valuable company in the world,” analyst Michael Nathanson wrote. Since early July, “the landscape has decidedly shifted further in Alphabet’s favor,” Nathanson wrote Thursday. “Alphabet emerges as one of the net winners in the AI race and remains the best positioned company to monetize and scale GenAI opportunities.” Google Cloud, a crucial asset for storing and processing the massive data sets used to train large-language models, is outpacing its peers in terms of growth, according to MoffettNathanson. And its access to third-party models and differentiated infrastructure “resonates strongly with AI startups,” Nathanson wrote. GOOGL YTD mountain GOOGL year to date Google also has an edge on competitors in multimodal search, further fueling its push to capture AI market share. Success is even more likely after Google’s recent court victory, where a judge ruled against reining in the search-engine operators’ alleged monopoly, according to MoffettNathanson. MoffettNathanson’s investment rating matches the majority of analysts on the Street, but its new price target is far above the consensus of nearly $236, according to LSEG. Alphabet has soared 42% in the past three months.
