Is Google Now Unstoppable?

A twelvemonth ago, the communicative was simple: OpenAI would devour Google's lunch. ChatGPT was the aboriginal of search, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was a lumbering elephantine astir to beryllium disrupted. Fast guardant to December 2025, and the communicative has flipped. Google conscionable delivered its archetypal $100 cardinal quarter, the banal has much than doubled from its early-2025 lows, and real-money prediction markets springiness the institution 89% likelihood of having the champion AI exemplary by year-end. The question isn't whether Google survived the AI threat. It's whether anyone tin halt them now.

Start with Q3 2025. Revenue deed $102.35 billion, up 26% year-over-year. What matters is the prime of that growth. Operating margins beryllium astatine 30.5%, nett margins astatine 32%, and instrumentality connected equity astatine 35%. Google is printing wealth astatine a standard and ratio that would marque a toll span relation jealous. Earnings grew 35% contempt the institution already sitting astatine $385 cardinal successful yearly revenue. That's not expected to happen.

Compare that to the competition. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) grew gross 18% successful Q1 2026 but took a $3.1 cardinal deed connected OpenAI concern losses: a $0.41 resistance connected EPS. Azure is increasing astatine 40%, but the institution is paying dearly for its AI bet. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw AWS maturation re-accelerate to 20%, but operating margins stay stuck astatine 11%. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) grew conscionable 8%, missing gross estimates. Meta (NASDAQ:META) matched Google's 26% gross maturation but got deed with a $15.93 cardinal taxation complaint that obliterated reported earnings.

Here's wherever Google separated from the pack. While Microsoft was penning checks to OpenAI and Meta was burning currency connected Reality Labs, Google already owned the infrastructure. Sundar Pichai laid it retired connected the Q3 call: "Our afloat stack attack to AI is delivering beardown momentum and we're shipping astatine speed, including the planetary rollout of AI Overviews and AI Mode successful Search successful grounds time."

The institution didn't request to get AI capability. It built TPUs, trained models in-house, and integrated Gemini crossed 650 cardinal monthly progressive users. Google Cloud grew 34% to $15.2 billion, faster than AWS and with amended margins. The prediction marketplace information is stunning: 89% probability that Google has the champion AI exemplary by year-end. OpenAI sits astatine 7%.