Google’s Parent Company Alphabet Wins Big Tech Stocks in 2025, at 61% YTD

Google’s parent company Alphabet, has emerged as the standout winner among Big Tech stocks in 2025, delivering a year-to-date gain of about 61%.

While Artificial Intelligence hype shaped market winners and losers throughout the year, Alphabet did more than keep pace. It steadily pulled ahead of the competition.

The surge in the tech company’s stock comes after some of its investors feared that it had lost its AI edge to OpenAI after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. As ChatGPT’s popularity exploded, some analysts and investors began to question whether Alphabet the company behind Google, the dominant search engine, and a long-time leader in AI research was being outpaced in the most important technological race of the decade.

However, by 2025, investor sentiment began to shift dramatically. Early in September, investor concerns eased around the Justice Department’s antitrust case over Google Search, as Justice Mehta’s ruling allowed Alphabet to avoid divestiture of Chrome and Android. Also, the company’s third-quarter (Q3) earnings results showed continued strength in Google Search, further dispelling fears.

Notably, Alphabet’s renewed AI strategy, anchored in its Gemini 3 model, started to deliver competitive results. In benchmark evaluations, Gemini 3 began to outperform leading AI models, reshaping perceptions about who truly leads in advanced AI capabilities. Alphabet’s Gemini 3 model climbed to the top of several key industry benchmarks, edging past rival systems in consensus testing and reshaping perceptions of AI leadership.

The development was significant enough to unsettle competitors, reinforcing the idea that the AI race is no longer dominated by a single player. Alphabet, once seen as chasing, is now widely viewed as leading.

“The leap to Gemini 3 and its ability to outshine its peers, especially OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has been the major catalyst,” says analyst Malik Ahmed Khan. He further noted that for this recent rally to continue, the company’s Google Search and Cloud businesses must both stay resilient. He notes that some risks however remain.

Khan calls Gemini 3 the “icing on the cake,” saying it was “a major step up from prior models, and it really positioned Alphabet as an AI leader, not a laggard.” He says Gemini 3’s “multi-modal” capabilities, meaning it can generate video and images in addition to text constitute a “huge competitive advantage,” because users who previously relied on competing LLMs have a reason to switch.

The equity analyst compares Alphabet’s situation to the evolution of social media companies such as Facebook Meta Platforms and Snap, which expanded into video and reels as they matured. “The winnings accrue to the ones with multi-modal capabilities. Google is significantly better than any of its peers now”, he said.

Also, Alphabet has regained momentum this year by turning its cloud business, once an also-ran, into a key growth driver, drawing in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as an investor and winning strong early reviews for its new Gemini 3 model.

Against this backdrop, the rest of the “Magnificent Seven” posted far more modest gains. NVIDIA rose 33% in 2025 strong by most standards, yet well behind Alphabet’s pace. Tesla gained 23%, Microsoft 14%, Meta 11%, and Apple 10%, while Amazon lagged with a 2.4% increase.

Outlook

While AI innovation remains critical, long-term market leadership increasingly depends on control of platforms, data, and global distribution. In 2025, Alphabet proved it has all three and investors rewarded it accordingly.

The tech giant enters 2026 with momentum firmly on its side, but sustaining its leadership will depend on execution rather than hype.

Analysts broadly expect the company to continue benefiting from three reinforcing pillars: AI integration across its core products, accelerating cloud growth, and the durability of Google Search as a cash-generating engine.