Key Points
Alphabet has a wide moat in search that should extend into AI.
The company is seeing strong growth in cloud computing, and has attractive bets on other emerging technologies.
The stock is attractively valued at current prices.
If you're looking for one of the best artificial intelligence (AI) stocks to own for next year and beyond, you don't need to look far. In fact, you likely use one or more of this company's products daily. That's one of the big reasons why Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a top AI stock to own for next year and over the long haul.
A search and AI leader
Alphabet today is about much more than Google search, but that's still its largest and most important business, and it will remain that way well into the future. Whether queries come from traditional search or AI chatbots, Alphabet established a wide moat in this arena.
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Alphabet's dominance starts with distribution. It owns the world's most used browser in Chrome and top smartphone operating system in Android, both of which have a more than a 70% market share. That automatically makes Google the default search engine for the majority of people. On top of that, it has a revenue-sharing deal with Apple to be the default search engine on its devices, which helps it reach most of the rest of the world, excluding China, where its search business does not operate.
At the same time, Alphabet is infusing its search solutions with its top-rated Gemini large language models to help drive growth. It introduced multimodal AI search features like Lens and Circle to Search on smartphones, which are leading to an increase in queries. Meanwhile, it incorporated AI Overviews into its search results, making search more useful through AI. And now it's rolling out AI Mode, which lets users easily switch between traditional search and an AI chatbot without having to switch apps or websites. Its stand-alone Gemini app has also been gaining a ton of traction, as users have been flocking to use its popular "Nano Banana" image editing tool, and it's about to bring it to more of its products.
Behind all of this is a data advantage no competitor can match. Alphabet has decades of behavioral data, massive video libraries through YouTube, and unmatched scale in search results that feed its Gemini models. It also has a huge two-sided ad network that it has spent decades building out, which can handle anything from global to local campaigns. This is something emerging competitors just don't have, and why Alphabet still has a wide moat.
Beyond search
Alphabet's biggest growth engine, meanwhile, is cloud computing. Last quarter, Google Cloud revenue climbed 32% to $13.6 billion, while operating income more than doubled to $2.8 billion. Demand was so strong that the company raised its capital expenditure budget this year from $75 billion to $85 billion to increase its data center capacity.
Alphabet's strength in cloud computing comes from its vertically integrated model. It is the only cloud provider with its own leading AI model, custom AI chips, and leading software programs. On top of that, it even owns its own fiber network to ensure high speeds and low latency. This all helps give the company a cost advantage. It's also looking to build on this with its pending acquisition of Wiz, which will give it a leading cloud computing cybersecurity solution.
Beyond search and cloud computing, Alphabet also has emerging bets like its Waymo robotaxi business and its quantum computing division. Waymo's robotaxi fleet is already operating in several U.S. cities and is expanding rapidly. If Alphabet can reduce costs and scale this business, it has the potential to be a huge growth driver in the future. In addition, its Willow quantum chip is showing real technical progress in reducing error rates, which is one of the biggest obstacles that quantum computing faces. Together, these emerging bets add a lot of potential future optionality.
A cheap stock
Despite all this, the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of less than 24 times expected 2026 earnings. That's lower than most of Alphabet's megacap AI peers.
Between its leading business, emerging bets, and attractive valuation, Alphabet is one of the best-positioned stocks to outperform in 2026. This is a stock you'll want to invest in both for next year and the long haul.
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Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
