Alphabet surged 160% in a year, and its market cap briefly surpassed Nvidia after-hours: the value of owning the “entire AI stack” is being realized

Alphabet (GOOGL) share price is up about 160% over the past year, and after the Q1 2026 earnings report analysts attributed this rally to Google’s competitive positioning in “full stack” AI. CNBC summarized: Alphabet’s Q1 consolidated revenue rose 22% year over year to $109.9 billion, while net profit surged 81% to $62.6 billion; Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year over year to $20 billion, for the first time breaking through that level; and cloud backlog increased to $462 billion, nearly doubling quarter over quarter. Alphabet briefly surpassed NVIDIA in after-hours trading last week to become the company with the largest market cap.

The specific content of “owning the entire AI stack”: chips, models, cloud, software

Alphabet’s AI full-stack coverage:

Chips: its own TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) series, reducing reliance on NVIDIA GPUs

Large language models: the Gemini series, directly competing with OpenAI and Anthropic

Cloud infrastructure: Google Cloud Platform; Q1 +63% makes it the fastest-growing cloud provider

Cloud applications: Workspace, with AI integrated into enterprise productivity suites

Research: DeepMind, AlphaEvolve, AlphaFold, and other advanced research outputs

Compared with competitors that focus on only one layer of the stack (NVIDIA mainly on chips, OpenAI mainly on models), Alphabet’s value lies in the fact that growth can be contributed by each layer’s revenue. This week’s abmedia report on the theme of an “AI chip generation transition” points in the same direction— the market is starting to shift AI profits away from a single GPU leader and toward suppliers across layers of the AI stack.

Q1 earnings numbers: revenue $109.9 billion, net profit +81%, Cloud breaks $20 billion

Key figures from Alphabet’s Q1 2026 earnings report on April 29:

Consolidated revenue: $109.9 billion, up 22% year over year

Net profit: $62.6 billion, up 81% year over year

Google Cloud revenue: $20 billion, up 63% year over year—first time breaking through this level

Cloud backlog (signed but unrecognized revenue): $462 billion, nearly doubling quarter over quarter

JPMorgan lists Alphabet as a “top pick” in the technology sector

A $462 billion cloud backlog means cloud revenue for the coming years has been locked in by existing contracts—Google Cloud not only has fast growth today, but also unprecedented revenue visibility in the future. This figure directly drives fundamental upside expectations for the stock price.

Market cap dynamics: briefly surpassed NVIDIA, and AI leadership is reshuffling again

Alphabet’s changing position in capital markets:

Briefly surpassed NVIDIA after hours this week to top the market cap ranking

Shifted from being seen as “the most dangerous victim” in the early AI boom (search business hit by ChatGPT) to becoming a “major winner”

Up about 160% over the past year, leading all Magnificent 7 peers

Specific developments to watch next: whether Google Cloud can maintain growth of 60%+ in Q2, changes in TPU market share versus NVIDIA GPUs in the enterprise AI training market, Gemini model adoption rates in the enterprise segment, and whether Alphabet further expands its capital expenditure scale in Q2.

This article, Alphabet shares up 160% in one year and briefly surpassed NVIDIA after hours: the value of owning an “entire AI stack” is first seen in Chain News ABMedia.