Alphabet Class C: Wall Street Bets Big on AI Upside

Alphabet Class C ( (GOOG) ) has been popular among investors this week. Here is a recap of the key news on this stock.

Alphabet Class C continues to be one of Wall Street’s favorite AI plays, with the stock up roughly 70% over the past year and analysts almost unanimously calling for more upside. Shares recently traded around $331–$333, while the average 12‑month price target now sits in the mid‑$380s, implying double‑digit gains. Several high‑profile analysts have reiterated bullish ratings in recent days, led by Pivotal Research’s Jeffrey Wlodarczak, who raised his Street‑high target to $420, and J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuth, who set a $395 target. Additional Buy ratings from CMB International (target $396) and Raymond James (400) underpin a Strong Buy consensus on Alphabet Class C.

The bullishness is driven by Alphabet Class C’s accelerating fundamentals and its aggressive push into artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Recent quarterly results showed search revenue growth re‑accelerating to around 17% year over year and Google Cloud revenue surging close to 48%, with margin improvement. Analysts argue that Google’s Gemini AI, backed by custom TPU chips and a deep data advantage, is strengthening the company’s moat across search, cloud and mobile devices, and could pressure rivals such as Microsoft and OpenAI. At the same time, Alphabet’s massive planned capex of roughly $175–$185 billion in 2026—largely to fund AI infrastructure—will weigh on free cash flow and is flagged as a key risk alongside regulatory scrutiny. Still, with YouTube, Waymo and other long‑term bets seen as additional value drivers, most on the Street view the heavy spending as a calculated move to secure Alphabet Class C’s leadership in the next phase of AI‑driven growth.