Overview
- Goldman Sachs lifted its Alphabet price target to $288 with a Buy rating ahead of Q3 results, calling the company highly leveraged to AI in digital advertising.
- Citizens JMP Securities’ Andrew Boone reiterated Market Outperform with a $290 target, projecting Q3 revenue of $100.06 billion and EPS of $2.30 while forecasting a beat versus consensus.
- Alphabet announced plans to invest $15 billion to build an AI hub in Visakhapatnam from 2026 to 2030, including gigawatt-scale data centers, new energy sources, expanded fiber, and a new international subsea gateway extending landings in Mumbai and Chennai.
- Bernstein’s Stacy Rasgon said firms like Alphabet are already seeing returns on AI spending, citing benefits flowing through Search and Cloud businesses.
- Recent data points include a 20.7% Q2 Cloud operating margin and a $106 billion backlog growing faster than revenue, with SimilarWeb reporting Gemini’s market share has quadrupled as ChatGPT’s share declines.