Alphabet's 15-Year Bull Run: How Google Became a Cloud Giant

Alphabet's stock has been a top performer over the past 15 years, beating the S&P 500 at every horizon. If you invested $1,000 in Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in 2011 and never touched it, your investment would be worth nearly $29,000 today.

The company's transformation from a dominant search engine to a cloud hyperscaler, AI infrastructure builder, and robotaxi operator has been remarkable. In 2026, Alphabet's Cloud revenue grew 82% to $24.8 billion, with the contract backlog topping $514 billion. This is not just speculation - it's a booked order book, with roughly half expected to convert to recognized revenue within 24 months.

However, there are some concerns about capital allocation and free cash flow. Alphabet raised its full-year 2026 capex guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion, which has sent Q2 free cash flow deeply negative, to -$5.9 billion. This has led the market to scrutinize the return on that capital closely.