Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) has become the second-largest U.S. publicly traded company, having surpassed Apple (AAPL) in terms of market capitalization.
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Alphabet’s stock is up about 3% in afternoon trading on Jan. 7, giving the company a market value of $3.897 trillion. Apple’s stock is down 0.24% on the day, reducing its market cap to $3.861 trillion. Alphabet now trails only chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), which has a market capitalization of $4.60 trillion.
However, this is not the first time that Alphabet has held a greater market value than Apple. The search engine giant last surpassed Apple in market cap on Jan. 29, 2019, according to market data. Alphabet was the second-largest U.S. company by market cap on Feb. 26, 2018.
Alphabet’s Big Rally
Alphabet’s ascension in the market cap rankings comes after its share price gained 66% in 2025, driven by investor excitement for the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) products and chatbots. GOOGL stock really took off at the end of last summer after a less severe federal antitrust ruling against Alphabet was handed down.
GOOGL stock has also benefited from enthusiasm for the company’s latest version of its Gemini AI model. AAPL stock, on the other hand, rose 9% last year and trailed the benchmark S&P 500’s 16% gain. Apple has been criticized for not having a more robust AI strategy, and for not integrating AI into its consumer electronic devices, notably the iPhone.
Is GOOGL Stock a Buy?
The stock of Alphabet has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 33 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 26 Buy and seven Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average GOOGL price target of $336.58 implies 4.61% upside from current levels.
