Alphabet’s dominating role in online search is increasingly under threat from OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI-based chatbot service. Following the launch of ChatGPT, Alphabet shares dropped as investors worried about Google’s precarious market control, which places the company’s wide range of revenue sources in jeopardy. Google’s long-term influence may be uncertain, with 85% of the global market share for search engine traffic on the chopping block if Microsoft’s Bing search engine moves to incorporate ChatGPT. Such risk to Google’s financials had Michael Lippert, a portfolio manager with the Baron Opportunity Fund, cut his involvement in Alphabet.
The stakes are high for Alphabet, as online search and related advertising make up 57% of its annual revenue. Microsoft, on the other hand, relies on search related advertising for only 5.8% of their annual income. But Alphabet may still have a competitive edge, being the cheapest of the largest technology stocks with a 10-year average price. Analysts are also confident of Alphabet’s future prospects, with Stephen Lee of Logan Capital Management claiming that AI technology has yet to have a significant financial impact.
Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of the popular social media platform Twitter has seen an iconic shift, with its legacy blue checkmarks are now removed in favour of a paid subscription service. Meanwhile TikTok CEO Shou Chew reassured users that the company was taking necessary steps to keep Beijing-based parent company from potentially influencing the platform. Lastly, Amazon.com’s Whole Foods Market grocery chain announced a corporate-level layoffs as part of reorganization.
Alphabet Inc. is one of the world’s leading technology companies and is one of four major tech and internet companies along with Apple, Amazon.com and Microsoft. Based in California, the company is best known for its Google products, such as the Google search engine and the Android operating system for phones and tablets. Sundar Pichai is the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet Inc. Since taking the helm in 2015, Pichai has worked to expand the company’s AI research and capabilities. He was instrumental in unifying the various artificial intelligence groups into a single unit in order to speed up the development of Alphabet’s products and services.
