Google’s parent company achieved a major financial milestone on Monday, reaching a $4tn valuation for the first time and surpassing Apple to become the world’s second most valuable company.
Nvidia, which is worth $5 trillion, is the fourth company after Microsoft and Apple to reach $4 trillion.
The share price surge came after Apple announced it had chosen Google’s Gemini AI model for a major overhaul of the iPhone maker’s digital assistant Siri, which comes installed on every iPhone. Neither company disclosed how much the deal is worth.
“After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for the Apple Foundation Model,” Apple said in a statement. cnbc.
As tech stocks continue their years-long rapid rise, fears of a stock market bubble remain; However, there is also Wall Street’s enthusiasm for new avenues of investment in AI. Alphabet’s milestone signals a remarkable turnaround in investor sentiment for Alphabet, with its stock rising nearly 65% in 2025, outperforming its peers in Wall Street’s elite group of stocks, the so-called “Magnificent Seven.”
The tech giant has dispelled investor skepticism about its artificial intelligence strategy with a series of high-profile product launches in recent months, including the latest version of its flagship AI model, Gemini, and the popular Nano Banana image generator and editor. ChatGPT’s creator and Google’s arch rival OpenAI disappointed investors and consumers with the release of its latest model, GPT-5, which allowed Alphabet to move ahead.
Google, best known for creating the world’s most popular search engine and browser, has also turned its once overlooked cloud unit into a major growth engine, securing a rare tech investment from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Google Cloud revenue rose 34% in the third quarter, as the backlog of unaccredited sales contracts grew to $155bn. Renting Google’s self-developed AI chips, which were reserved for internal use, to external customers has also enabled the unit’s rapid pace of development.
Meanwhile, the company’s key revenue generator – the advertising business driven by Google Search and YouTube – has remained largely stable despite economic uncertainty and intense competition.
The company has faced two landmark US antitrust lawsuits as it finds its place in the AI boom. After Google lost the first case, a judge ruled against breaking up the company in September, allowing it to retain control of its Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system.
In another case, a judge ruled that Google had illegally monopolized the online advertising market last April. A lawsuit over how to fix the monopoly began in September, in which a judge could force Google to sell parts of its lucrative advertising business to promote competition.
