Alphabet IncGOOGBUYJul 05, 2023Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 10, 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.
Both great but different businesses, and great as long-term holds. Decide what end-market you're targeting to make your choice.
ASML makes cutting-edge machines that cost $100s of millions per unit. Concerns in the near term about China and the tit-for-tat going on. Risk that orders will be pushed back. Long-term, still likes a lot. Quite expensive, more of a monopoly.
GOOG is still one of his favourites. May just have the best AI capabilities in the world, despite OpenAI and the MSFT partnership, and that will continue to power through. Not expensive.