Alphabet Inc (GOOG)

Owns and likes both, but MSFT gets the nod if you forced him to choose, because of its AI potential.

A lot of the trend right now is in AI, and MSFT will be the winner. They already have the platform, just increase the price and that's good for margins. Strong user-installed base that AI can leapfrog off of.

GOOG is more of an advertising company, and ads are coming back. Net margins of 25%, good growth. GOOG will have more work to do on the AI front. Given the recent price drop, there are worse companies to buy.

Cloud computing division growth not as high as Microsoft. Dominant in search business. Very strong YouTube segment. Excellent in A.I. tech. Valuation at 19x forward earnings is attractive. Very strong brand and franchise. 

Reported yesterday and the market sold off. To him, their sales and earnings looked pretty good, but their cloud growth slowed by 1-2%, though still very good YOY. The sell-off was wildly overdone and reflects wider market sentiment. Recently bought this. It's the #1 leader in online ads, given their search engine at 85-90% market share. Has a wide, deep moat. They also own YouTube which Gen-Z loves to watch, and owns Android, a dominant phone. Their cloud is a distant #3 player, though. Their leading position in gen-AI is a kicker. Have earnings momentum to grow around 15%.

Down on earnings today, but a good time to buy. 82% of earnings are from advertising. Their cloud is run very well, #2 before Amazon and Microsoft.

Reports next week and he expects a good quarter. It's now closest to its all-time high, among the FAANGs. The stock has done nothing the past two years, but earnings growth is better than Apple's.

Wonderful business and compounder. Holds, but hasn't been buying for new clients because valuation's run up. Debt free, gushes cash. Staggering capex makes their products so good. Good management. Wait, and with market volatility, you'll get your chance to buy.

Now embarking on AI. Boasts a long track record of innovation and successfully integrating tech companies. Trades in the low-20x PE, not far from consumer product companies, but boasts better growth rates. They spend $20 billion yearly on R&D. Really likes this company.

They have $70 billion in free cash flow. Cash flow is now important, becaue they don't need the debt markets to grow. He's buying more on weakness. There's growth in many megatech, given growth potential as well as cash.

Agrees with Bill Ackman that GOOG botched their AI launch and let MSFT take the lead. MSFT is the top AI play, even ahead of Nvidia. Demand for cloud will increase as demand for AI rises, because AI needs more cloud. GOOG is starting to charge a subscription for services, like MSFT, making their revenue stream consistent. He likes and owns both.

Though MSFT is up 32% this year vs. GOOG's 49%, he prefers MSFT, because Google fumbled their AI roll-out while MSFT will benefit more from AI, as offered in their suite of services and how it benefits their consumers. Both companies are strong with strong user bases and will benefit from AI.

Excellent business with very strong margins.
Dominant in search engine technology.
A.I., product recovering quickly.
Current share price a good place to buy.
Expecting double digit growth.
Free cash flow very high - lots reinvested into R&D.

Core tech holding. Pulling in expenses, improving operating margins. Generative AI tools will be very competitive. Cloud business growing nicely at 28% YOY, which will continue. Very profitable, strong balance sheet, lots of cash.

80-85% of revenue comes from ads on Search. A recession would impact this, always keep that in mind. So many horses in the race. Together with MSFT, very much a leader in the AI space. Will do extremely well with generative services. A Top 5 holding. Constantly beats expectations. #3 in the cloud, but ORCL is biting at their heels. 

He's bullish the NFL on YouTube. Big tech like Amazon are getting into live sports because advertisers love it. This NFL/YT deal will be bigger and better than those other sports deals and will be a game-changer for GOOG and yet few notice. GOOG shares are up 56% this year, because digital ads are holding up and Google is basically an ad platform. A revenues grew 3.3% in the last quarter over the previous quarter and beat estimates. Search and YouTube ads both did well. The market is slowly waking up to YouTube's ad revenue power but also subscriptions which give stability to the boom and bust ad revenue stream.

It has a dominant position in the search business. Has a great balance sheet with $50 billion in free cash flow each year. It has 30% of all digital advertising which is a 400 billion dollar business. Trades at 19X earnings with great growth opportunities. There is an anti-trust action against Google but they will learn from Microsoft's experience and not be so aggressive.