Alphabet (GOOGL) Expected to Beat Earnings as AI Push Remains Strong Despite Ad Headwinds

We recently published a list of 10 AI Stocks Surging on News Today. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stands against other AI stocks surging on news today.

In the latest efforts to stop China from getting ahead in the AI race, the Trump administration is considering penalties that would block China’s DeepSeek from buying U.S. technology, reports The New York Times. It has also been reported that the administration is currently debating Americans’ access to its services. DeepSeek, a Chinese start-up that shook up Wall Street a few months ago with its cheaper and more efficient AI models, has had the US taking firm steps to tighten controls and scrutinize tech investments.

A key focus of US export controls has been Nvidia, whose chips were used to build DeepSeek’s AI models. Even though the US had stringent export controls, the AI start-up managed to get hold of thousands of its GPUs, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the said controls. As a result, US officials now aim to prevent the most advanced chips from being sold to China to deter it from having a lead in the AI race.

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The U.S. House Select Committee on China said that “it has sent a formal letter to Nvidia demanding answers about sales to China and Southeast Asia to examine whether and how its chips ended up powering DeepSeek’s AI models—despite U.S. export restrictions”.

With the government tightening its export rules to China, the AI chipmaker has revealed how it would face a $5.5bn (£4.2bn) hit in costs. The company will now require licences to export its H20 AI chip to China, one of its most popular chips.

“The [government] indicated that the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China.”

The company also said that federal officials have advised them that the licence requirement “will be in effect for the indefinite future”.

According to Marc Einstein from the Counterpoint Research consultancy, the $5.5bn hit is in line with estimates.

“As we have seen in the last few days and weeks, this may largely be a negotiating tactic. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some exemptions or changes made to tariff policy in the near future.”

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points  (see more details here).

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company wholly owning the internet giant Google, amongst other businesses. On April 17, Citi reiterated the stock as “Buy”. It is sticking with the stock ahead of earnings next week.

“GOOGL is scheduled to report 1Q25 results Thursday, 04/24, AMC that we believe are likely to be in-line / slightly better than ours and consensus expectations. That said, the focus is on N-T trends and visibility given macro concerns stemming from the reciprocal tariffs and our checks suggest a softer ad environment beginning in March.”

Overall, GOOGL ranks 3rd on our list of AI stocks surging on news today. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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