Overview
- Alphabet shares rose 2.27% Monday to close at $405.79 after touching $406.29, leaving the company about 2% shy of a $5 trillion valuation and up $1 trillion in market value over 87 days.
- The move reflects positioning for Google I/O on May 19–20 in Mountain View, where investors expect demonstrations of the Gemini 3 model, Android 17’s built-in AI features, and AI-enabled smart glasses.
- Bank of America reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $430 target and said the conference could strengthen confidence in Google’s AI plan, though a lack of standout announcements could weigh on the stock.
- First-quarter results added support, with revenue of $110 billion up 22% year over year and Google Cloud up 63% to $20 billion, plus a near-doubled $462 billion cloud backlog that points to contracted future sales.
- Signals of support and reduced risk included Berkshire Hathaway, led by Greg Abel, boosting its Alphabet stake by more than 200% in Q1 and YouTube settling a Kentucky school district case that was headed for trial.