Alphabet, Google's parent company, has overtaken Apple to claim the position of the world's second most valuable publicly traded company, trailing only Nvidia in market capitalization. The milestone reflects a seismic shift in investor sentiment as AI-driven growth narratives pull capital toward companies with the clearest path to AI monetization.
Alphabet's ascent has been fueled by renewed confidence in its AI strategy following a rocky 2024. Google's Gemini rollout, the rapid adoption of AI Overviews in Search, and strong cloud revenue growth from Google Cloud — which is benefiting directly from enterprise AI demand — have combined to push the stock to record highs in early 2026.
Apple, by contrast, has faced persistent questions about its AI roadmap. While Apple Intelligence launched with significant fanfare, analysts have flagged that the feature set lags behind Google's and Microsoft's AI integrations in key areas. The company is reportedly exploring AI wearable devices as its next platform bet, but no product has shipped yet.