
NASDAQ:GOOG
It reported this week. Will spend much more on AI than the street expected. They could get away with this because they reported excellent numbers and are winning the AI race, but is down 3% the past day or so. Shares need to take a break anyway, up 70.5% since the start of 2025. It holds great businesses: Google, Gemini, cloud, Waymo, YouTube.
Yes, capex is on everyone's mind. GOOG's taken a beating, but it's still in a range. Broke the lower part of the range this morning -- just under the support level, but it's sort of coming back. He's not that surprised, as it's a year of transition.
Out of the mega-caps, this one is probably in the best position. Really well-positioned on the hardware side (CPUs), and the ad side has a strong moat both in Search and YouTube. This gives them hardware and software exposure. Strong position in quantum computing -- won't move the needle in the short term, but you want exposure and this name is less risky.
Stock's already reflecting a lot of this. Her firm's sweet spot is $1B-100B market cap, so she's not in this name. But thinks it would screen pretty well.
Lots going on with the Mag 7 right now. Both GOOG and MSFT lapped AMZN last year in terms of hyperscalers, AI, and data centres; due to AWS not growing as it was.
He favours MSFT as a play on data centres and quantum computing. Better that investors choose between GOOG and MSFT as better opportunities than AMZN moving forward.
There were previous concerns over AI affecting its search business but AI has actually been helping its search business. Its latest version of Gemini has had very good reviews. It had a very strong quarter and the cloud business is growing rapidly. Also the ad business is growing in double digits and You Tube is doing very well. She has taken some profits because it is her largest tech holding.
A young investor has lots of time ahead. High-risk and volatile choices are acceptable as we move down the AI highway, as long as the investor is OK with the risk. So GOOG and AVGO are great. Let this investor run -- he's having fun and doing well, so let them stay invested.
GE is also good. HON is a bit more of a neutral conversation, but has its own turnaround coming through.
Owns GOOG and AMZN, but not MSFT. All are spending at least $100B this year. It's going to be a show-me story. Investors really want to see if spending will result in future earnings. He thinks it will, but there's a bit of fogginess around that.
Plus, markets are shifting away from mega-cap tech, putting pressure on some of these names. If your time horizon is 5 years, not 1, you should do well with most of these hyperscaler names.