Alphabet's value soared by $420 billion, the second biggest jump in history
The company is now one step away from becoming the world's most expensive, coming close behind Nvidia
The integration of artificial intelligence into Google's search service has led to the expansion, not cannibalization, of its core business / Photo: Nwz / Shutterstock.com
Alphabet's capitalization increased by an unprecedented $421 billion in the last trading session. The rapid rally in shares of Google's Wall Street holding company has triggered a massive revision of its earnings forecasts.
Details
A 10% jump in Alphabet's stock price on April 30 added $421 billion to its market value. This one-day increase in capitalization became a record for the company itself and the second largest in the global history of the stock market, writes MarketWatch with reference to data from Dow Jones. The absolute record is still held by Nvidia - on April 9, 2025, the main beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom rose in price by $440 billion after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the suspension of duties.
At the end of trading on Thursday, the growth of Alphabet's quotations since the beginning of 2026 reached 23%, as a result, the market value of the company increased by more than $860 billion and amounted to $4.65 trillion. Now Alphabet is close to overtake Nvidia and become the most expensive company in the world, notes Bloomberg. The capitalization of the market leader in the AI-chip market is now $4.85 trillion.
What Wall Street thinks of Alphabet stock
April 30, Wall Street was hit by a wave of revision of forecasts on Alphabet shares: according to MarketScreener, 26 investment banks and analytical companies raised target prices of its securities. Scatter of new estimations made from conservative $375 per share at Morgan Stanley (earlier $330) to maximum $465 at Cantor Fitzgerald (earlier $395).
The vast majority of financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BofA, have reiterated buy recommendations on Google's parent company (Buy, Outperform and Overweight ratings). Only three teams of analysts - from UBS, Rosenblatt and Bernstein - maintained a neutral view on the prospects of the corporation (Neutral and Market Perform), but even they moved the price targets on the shares up.
Bigtech's new AI leader
Alphabet has recently been successful in shattering the myth that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to its business. The company has become the undisputed leader in neural networks among the "Magnificent Seven" tech giants. Investors initially feared Google's products would lag behind competitors. However, according to Sensor Tower, Google's mobile chatbot Gemini is now second only to OpenAI's ChatGPT in the number of downloads, MarketWatch points out.
Alphabet's quarterly reports, disclosed on April 29, recorded high demand for cloud technologies and artificial intelligence services. The market took this as confirmation of the return on aggressive investment in AI. The introduction of neural networks not only did not harm Google's core search business, but also led to its expansion: in the first quarter of 2026, it grew by 19%, and the volume of requests from users reached a historic high.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
