Investors' Concerns Over AI Challenges Alphabet's (GOOG) Market Position

Giverny Capital Asset Management, LLC, an investment management company, recently published its second-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. During the first half of the year, the market was volatile. The S&P 500 ended June 30 up 6.20%. The portfolio lagged behind the market initially but gained 5.41% over the six months. In the quarter ended June, the portfolio returned 9.11% compared to the S&P 500’s 10.94% return. Additionally, you can review the fund’s top 5 holdings to see its best picks for 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Giverny Capital Asset Management highlighted stocks such as Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services operating through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The one-month return of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was 9.94%, and its shares gained 21.51% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 5, 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock closed at $195.32 per share, with a market capitalization of $2.358 trillion.

Giverny Capital Asset Management stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

"Our biggest detractors from performance were Builders FirstSource (-18.4%); CarMax (-17.8%); Fiserv (-16.7%); Align Technology (-9.2%) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (-6.7. Alphabet is down as investors increasingly worry that ChatGPT and other AI models will overtake its core internet search engine. We think Alphabet’s Gemini AI model is very promising (and by no means inferior to others) and will complement the Google search engine. We also believe Alphabet has a variety of other businesses and investments such as YouTube and Waymo that have enormous value."

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in 7th position on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 164 hedge fund portfolios held Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of the first quarter which was 174 in the previous quarter. In the second quarter of 2025, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) achieved a revenue of $96.4 billion, representing an increase of 14% compared to Q2 2024. While we acknowledge the potential of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.

In another article, we covered Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and shared Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund's views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.