“I think no company, including us, will survive this,” Pichai said, “if the AI-driven enthusiasm suddenly wanes.” [File]
| Photo courtesy: Reuters
Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. On Monday it became the fourth Big Tech powerhouse to be valued at $4 trillion, a once-seemingly unfathomable milestone that has become something of a rite of passage amid an artificial intelligence arms race.
Alphabet reached the threshold just four months after Google dodged a U.S. government attempt to break up its Internet empire following a ruling last year that declared its ubiquitous search engine an illegal monopoly.
In an effort to prevent further abuses, a federal judge overseeing the case ordered a change, which investors widely interpreted as a slap on the wrist, resulting in a 57% increase in Alphabet’s stock price since then, creating an additional $1.4 trillion in shareholder wealth.
The swift move brings Alphabet into the $4 trillion club that previously welcomed computer chip maker Nvidia, which became the first to cross the barrier in July. Apple and Microsoft both also surpassed $4 trillion in market value last year, but have retreated amid concerns that the race to spend on AI will turn into a bubble that will burst.
Nvidia’s market value briefly topped $5 trillion in late October before retreating as fears of an AI bubble also hit its share price because its chipsets are needed to power the technology.
Meanwhile, Amazon is currently valued at $2.6 trillion, partly due to its AI ambitions, and Facebook’s core meta platform is valued at $1.6 trillion for some of the same reasons. Electric automaker Tesla is also betting heavily on AI, a move that has prompted the company — now valued at $1.5 trillion — to approve a compensation package that would pay CEO Elon Musk $1 trillion if several goals are hit, including reaching a market cap of more than $8.5 trillion.
Alphabet joined the $4 trillion club on the same day Apple announced it would rely on Google’s AI technology to help make its virtual assistant Siri smarter after failing in its efforts to bring more advanced features to the iPhone.
Google is well-positioned to become one of the big winners in the AI battle as it is deploying the technology to transform its search engine into a conversational answer engine to compete against companies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity.
The next generation of Gemini models with Google’s AI technology built-in has been winning rave reviews since its recent release, helping boost Alphabet’s stock price while shares of other AI-powered companies have fallen due to ongoing bubble concerns. Google’s cloud division, which sells AI tools to corporate customers and government agencies, has emerged as Alphabet’s fastest-growing segment over the past three years, while AI technology has enabled its Waymo robotaxi division to send more self-driving vehicles to cities across the US.
The competitive threat posed by rising AI stars like OpenAI and Perplexity is one of the reasons why US District Judge Amit Mehta rejected the US Justice Department’s motion to force Google to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser. The judge argued that technological advances made by AI are already forcing significant changes in online search.
If investors’ sentiments about the company’s exposure to a potential AI bubble suddenly change, Alphabet’s market value could fall. Even Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged during an interview with the BBC in November that some market “irrationality” is contributing to the skyrocketing market values of Big Tech companies.
“I think if the AI-driven enthusiasm suddenly disappears, no company, including ours, will be immune,” Pichai said.
published – January 13, 2026 09:11 am IST
