Alphabet IncGOOGBUY ON WEAKNESSJul 08, 2020Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 13, 2026. Market Open.
Fears that AI would eat its lunch. Harder for Anthropic to monetize a new tool than for GOOG to take AI and apply it to a business model that it already monetizes. Muscle memory of the populace gravitates to GOOG to find information. Probably thrives in the new AI world, until something more disruptive comes along.
AI monetization is happening, and AI Mode has been a game changer. Stronger cloud growth (revenue grew 63% YOY last quarter, tremendous), broader monetization across platforms. Search and advertising remain strong, lots of cashflow. Also a great ecosystem.
Good growth, but relatively decent valuation. Yield is 0.25%.
A year ago, consensus was that Search was going to die. Seems ridiculous now. Gemini is overtaking ChatGPT. Data centre business is growing faster than before. Still not that expensive. He hasn't sold any shares yet, but may take some off the table from the long-term holding and put toward one of the Mag 7 laggards.
Warren Buffet has 43% of his portfolio in APPL. APPL is a wonderful brand and strong company. He does not own it today. What worries him a little is that more than half of their revenues come from iPhone sales. They are diversifying, but it will take time. People are tending to keep their phones a year or two longer today it seems. The valuation has made it quite expensive. He would wait for a pullback or consider V, GOOG or MSFT. Warren Buffet must have some amazing incite to take on that concentration in the portfolio.