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Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
You Have $1,000 to Invest. Should You Buy GOOG or GOOGL?
Key Points Alphabet offers investors exposure to powerful tech megatrends like artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and autonomous transportation -- all under one roof. Alphabet trades under two ticker symbols, but they both represent the same underlying business. Unless voting rights are important to you, either ticker is a great way to invest in this "Magnificent Seven" stock. 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet › The "Magnificent Seven" is a popular tag for the most dominant, high-performing tech companies on the planet. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), (NASDAQ: GOOG), Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla have delivered market-crushing returns over the past decade, in large part because their businesses are on the forefront of the most disruptive technology macrotrends in modern history. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » While all seven companies are juggernauts in their own right, one Magnificent Seven stock stands out due to its dominant core business, exposure to multiple megatrends, and attractive valuation relative to its cohorts. That stock is Alphabet. An unconventional company There's something else that makes Alphabet different. Unlike the other members of the Magnificent Seven, Alphabet trades under two tickers: GOOG and GOOGL. Why would Alphabet do that? A little history will provide some helpful context. Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google (Alphabet's predecessor) in 1998. When Google filed its IPO paperwork in 2004, Page declared in a letter to prospective shareholders: "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one." In that same letter, Page fretted that becoming a public company could undermine the independence and creative spirit that had been critical to Google's success. He also made it clear that the company would not "shy away from high-risk, high-reward projects" just to hit some arbitrary quarterly financial target. To ensure that Page, Brin, and the rest of the executive team would retain "control over the company's decisions and fate," Google implemented a dual-class stock structure. It's all about insider control Common stock represents partial ownership in a company, and it usually comes with the right to vote on issues such as executive compensation, board members, and mergers and acquisitions. When Google debuted as a publicly traded company in August 2004, it used the dual class structure to concentrate 99% of the voting power in the hands of its founders, executives, and board members. Here's how: Each share of Class A common stock (available to regular investors) came with one vote. Each share of Class B common stock (held by founders and insiders) came with 10 votes. At the time, Page acknowledged that this was an unconventional move for a tech company, although it wasn't uncommon for other types of businesses. Perhaps the most well-known example is Berkshire Hathaway. However, in the years since Google's 2004 IPO, a number of tech companies have adopted dual class structures to maintain insider control, including Meta Platforms, Palantir, and Roblox. . This is where it gets a little confusing In April 2014, Google added another layer of complexity to its share structure by way of a 2-for-1 stock split. On April 2, 2014, Google's shareholders received one share of newly issued Class C stock for every share of Class A stock that they already owned. Starting on April 3, 2014, two classes of Google stock were available to the public: Class A shares (GOOGL): One vote per share Class C shares (GOOG): No voting power The important thing to note is the Class C shares don't come with voting rights. That was the whole point of the 2014 stock split. By issuing nonvoting Class C shares, Google could fund acquisitions and offer stock-based compensation and incentives without diluting executives' voting power. To recap, this is the share structure that exists today: Should you buy GOOG or GOOGL? Today, Google the search engine is just one piece of Alphabet, the umbrella company formed in 2015. What makes Alphabet such a compelling investment is that it's not just a search-engine provider. Owning Alphabet is a bit like owning an ETF with exposure to some of the biggest themes in tech -- from cloud computing and AI to autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, and streaming. And as I alluded to earlier, Alphabet trades at a discount to its Magnificent Seven cohorts based on its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio: GOOG PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts But there's still one question left to answer: Is GOOG or GOOGL the better investment? Because GOOGL comes with voting rights, you'd think it would trade at a premium to its Class C sibling, GOOG. But interestingly enough, GOOG has outperformed GOOGL since April 3, 2014, ever-so-slightly: GOOG data by YCharts As of July 16, GOOG was priced at $183.77, just a hair above GOOGL at $182.97. So based on the recent price action, you could look at it this way: GOOGL gives you the same exposure to Alphabet's basket of businesses, but at a slightly lower price, with the added benefit of voting power. In reality, most regular investors can't purchase enough shares to have any meaningful impact on the company's strategic direction through their votes. And because both tickers represent the same underlying security, there likely will never be any wide variation in price between the two. So unless you care deeply about voting rights, either ticker is a great way to invest in this Magnificent Seven standout. Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now? Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Josh Cable has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Roblox, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google's head of Android once cold-emailed the $2 trillion tech giant's cofounder Sergey Brin for college advice—instead, he got a job offer
exec Sameer Samat got his foot in the door at the $2 tech giant not with the perfect resume or cover letter—but rather the confidence to cold email its billionaire cofounder Sergey Brin in the middle of the night. While Samat was later offered a job during an on-the-spot interview with Brin, he declined, opting to continue in his own entrepreneurial journey. Two decades later, he's the boss of Android. There isn't much that is more difficult than landing a job at Google. With an acceptance rate close to 0.2% according to CNBC, you'd have far better luck applying to Harvard or Yale. However, for Sameer Samat, all it took was one cold email. During the dot-com boom, the then 20-something-year-old was trying to navigate the tech startup world. But with his cofounders contemplating jumping ship for graduate school, he needed advice on how to convince them to stay. So, he boldly sent Google cofounder Sergey Brin a 3 a.m. email seeking guidance. 'A couple of them were on to go to grad school, and we had a big fight about it,' Samat said to Business Insider. 'I said, 'I don't understand how you can want to go to grad school; we're building this company.'' ''What would you do in this situation? I'm sure you had this wrestle with this grad school decision,'' he recalled writing to Brin in 1999. A minute later, Brin responded and invited Samat and his team to Google headquarters. But instead of sitting them down together, he conducted 1-1 interviews on the spot—and Samat landed a job offer. While Samat ultimately declined the role—electing to stay with his machine learning startup Mohomine—Brin connected him with others in the industry, including investors. Years later, he joined the tech giant in 2008 as a product management director, eventually rising to president of Android in 2024. But he couldn't have done it without that early foot in the door from Brin. 'He didn't have to do any of that,' Samat said. 'And so I try to pay that forward, too, when people call me up with something similar.' Fortune reached out to Google for comment. Weighing going to college or becoming a tech entrepreneur The decision whether to go to graduate school is a tough decision many young adults face, especially in today's education world where AI is reshaping what students need to learn. Samat said the decision comes down to what's better for someone personally, but sometimes, knowing less about formal strategy—and instead following your gut—can lead to greater success. 'There is no substitute for taking a pretty good plan and just running like hell,' Samat said to BI. 'And sometimes the naiveness of someone who doesn't have that background makes a much better entrepreneur.' His boss, Google CEO Sundar Pichai—who Samat called a 'work big brother'—has similar feelings on navigating one's career path. 'I think it's tough to find things you love doing, but I think listening to your heart a bit more than your mind [helps] in terms of figuring out what you want to do,' Pichai said on the Lex Fridman podcast last month. Nevertheless, Pichai's education resume includes a master's degree in material science and engineering, as well as, an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. While the price of higher education is high—and some are questioning its value—there's no question that it is one of the ultimate destinations for networking. After all, Google's founders first met when Brin, then a graduate student at Stanford, was assigned to show prospective student Larry Page around campus. The rest is a $2 trillion history. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google Brain founder has an unexpected one-word message on AI
Google Brain founder has an unexpected one-word message on AI originally appeared on TheStreet. Big Tech just can't stop chasing it. The dream of controlling an all-knowing, human-like AI, artificial general intelligence (AGI), has become Silicon Valley's obsession. 💵💰💰💵 From cloud giants to chipmakers, they're shelling out billions in building the elusive AGI, opening up never-before-seen avenues. But just as the race heats up, one seasoned AI veteran dropped a single word that has quickly turned the narrative on its head. AGI has arguably been the holy grail of Big Tech. Unlike the current narrow AI systems, AGI looks to replicate human-level thinking, problem-solving, and adaptability. It's arguably the tech industry's most expensive gamble in its rich history, and the biggest names in Big Tech have gone all-in. At Google I/O, co-founder Sergey Brin argued that the company's powerful Gemini model is built to be the first true CEO Demis Hassabis argued that AGI needs to be capable of advanced reasoning while building mental models of the world. Meta Platforms, in particular, isn't holding back. In June, it launched its Superintelligence Lab, effectively reshaping its internal AI strategy around AGI milestones. Meanwhile, Microsoft has dished out billions to OpenAI, with clauses governing AGI rights baked into their contract. More Tech Stock News: TikTok's next move has Google and Meta sweating bullets Cathie Wood shells out $13.9 million for one high-stakes biotech stock Apple's quiet shake-up could redefine its future Amazon's no different, betting huge on AGI startup Anthropic, while Nvidia, whose GPUs drive over 80% of generative AI compute loads, recently jumped to a $4 trillion market cap. Analysts forecast that the AGI market could surge from just under $4 billion last year to more than $100 billion by the mid-2030s. Though those numbers are far from guaranteed, rest assured, the money will keep pouring from Big Tech. AGI isn't taking over the world anytime soon, at least not if you ask Andrew Ng. The AI pioneer and founder of Google Brain dismissed the buzz around the phenomenon, bluntly referring to it with one word — 'overhyped' — during a talk at Y Combinator. 'For a long time, there'll be a lot of things that humans can do that AI cannot.' AGI obviously refers to a future version of AI that could beat humans in thinking and reasoning across a wide range of tasks. However, Ng says we're nowhere close at this point, and he's not chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, said last year that AGI fears are misplaced. He explained that even though large language models might seem impressive, they're not the road to AGI. Ng agrees and feels the real punch from AI lies in the ability to use it, not in building the most human-like system. 'People that know how to use AI to get computers to do what you want it to do will be much more powerful,' he said. That doesn't let developers off the hook, though. Some folks will be there to create the tools, but plenty more will simply learn how to use them well, which represents the real edge. The bigger message is obviously a more hopeful one that suggests humans aren't becoming obsolete anytime soon. There's still plenty of work to do, and AI is just a different way to accomplish it. However, as the tech world pursues the AI objective like crazy, Ng's take offers a reality check. Though a ton of companies are marching toward AGI, he's reminding everyone that smart, strategic usage still matters more than sci-fi dreams. That stance puts Big Tech in a remarkably tricky spot. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta have sunk billions into the AGI dream. However, if AGI is overblown, as Ng and others suggest, it raises serious questions about whether tech giants are overpromising — and setting themselves up to Brain founder has an unexpected one-word message on AI first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
Politico
14-07-2025
- Business
- Politico
How war, and Silicon Valley, are driving an Israeli tech rebound
With help from Aaron Mak It wasn't long ago that Israel's tech sector saw a drop in both confidence and global investments. After the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing Israeli retaliation in Gaza, foreign direct investment plummeted, and the government injected millions of dollars into the tech industry to try to lure investors. But now, a rebound is firmly underway — led in many cases by American investment. The California semiconductor giant Nvidia is planning a new campus of up to 30 acres in the country's north, it told DFD. Google acquired Israeli-founded cybersecurity company Wiz for $32 billion in March. Since the war began, venture capital firms Sequoia and Greylock announced they were hiring new local partners; Andreessen Horowitz also reportedly made significant new investments in Israel (the company didn't respond to DFD questions). Startup Nation Central, a nonprofit promoting Israeli innovation, found in January that Israeli tech companies raised more than $9.3 billion in the first half of 2025, which it said was the strongest six-month performance in the last three years. Investors in Israel say the recovery is fueled by growing global interest in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, both of which are Israeli strengths, and have now been tested on the battlefield in Gaza. Politically, too, Israel is benefiting from more vocal support in Silicon Valley, despite global criticism of Israel's retaliatory actions. Most recently, Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations 'transparently antisemitic' after it published a report on companies, including Google, that profit from working with Israel, The Washington Post reported. (Google didn't respond to a question about Brin's comment.) The Financial Times marked the shift in an essay published Monday: 'Despite all the international criticism of Israel for its multiple military offensives, from Gaza to Iran, a surge in foreign buying has fuelled the rally in its stock market…. Israel is cementing its status as the region's dominant economic force.' Shuly Galili, managing partner and founder of the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm UpWest VC, which invests in Israel, said she had noticed the bounceback as well. 'Between October [2023] and January – that was probably the most disruptive period,' she said. She mused that foreign investors might be swooping in to be 'contrarian' and 'to announce this is time to get best deals and put in money on ground.' Israel is not a consensus cause in the tech world, where the rank-and-file politics often lean progressive. Last year, dozens of Google workers protested the company's contract with the Israeli government. The company fired them. Critics continue to target Israeli policies — and its use of technology — as morally questionable. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accused Israel of war crimes in the course of an onslaught that has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. And Palestinians say Israeli's dominance in AI should not be a selling point - it should be a cautionary tale. One group called it 'the most nefarious threat to Palestinians' living under Israeli control because of its speed, potential inaccuracies and the shift of responsibility to machines. But these concerns do not seem to have dented Israel's appeal for investors — especially those looking for advanced military technology powered by AI. It's all a remarkable pivot from the early days after Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people, taking hundreds more hostage. After the attack — and Israel's overwhelming military reaction — airlines canceled their flights, major tech companies nixed events, and the sector's workers were in and out of reserves. By 2024, one financial newspaper reported tech deals were at a five-year low. But since then, economically at least, the conflict has gone from a liability to something more like a proof of concept. In one literal example, the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems appeared to show a real-life drone attack on a man in a promotional video for its Spike Firefly loitering munition, which one analyst geolocated to northern Gaza. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Startup Nation Central's CEO Avi Hasson said in a statement that defense companies have shifted into 'high gear: battlefield urgency has fast-tracked development, surfaced exceptional talent, and inspired a new wave of entrepreneurs. Startups are pouring into this space, and capital is following.' Grant Demaree, a U.S. military veteran and founder of the Pentagon contractor Onebrief, says Israel had offered some real-world lessons in how to integrate AI on the battlefield. 'The biggest lesson is that for AI to be useful, it need not to be perfect, it just needs to significantly outperform people,' he said. As an example, he mentioned AI for targeting. 'We know humans make a lot of targeting mistakes all the time,' he said. 'If you can have an AI that makes fewer mistakes and is significantly faster, I think that contributes to a better outcome and is just better than just doing the process manually, even if that is still imperfect.' Palestinians say AI — far from 'outperforming' — is responsible for some of the worst carnage of the conflict. Hani Almadhoun, who lives in the Washington, D.C. area and runs a soup kitchen in his native Gaza using GoFundMe, said his brother Majed was killed with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023; a second brother Mahmoud was killed a year later by a drone. He told DFD he suspected Majed might have been mistakenly targeted by AI, though he had no way to confirm the feeling. 'AI hasn't made war smarter. It's just made it way easier to kill people without feeling guilty about it,' he said. 'That's not progress; that's just pure horror, all wrapped up in fancy computer code,' he said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to POLITICO's questions. In response to previous reports that soldiers were relying on an AI-based program to identify targets, the Israeli military said that AI was only used in 'auxiliary tools that assist officers in the process of incrimination.' Meanwhile, Silicon Valley's politics are shifting, with Israel fitting into a new, Trump-aligned sensibility. After Brin complained about a UN report accusing 48 companies – including Google, Microsoft, Palantir and Amazon – of complicity in Israel's 'economy of genocide,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioned its author. In Washington, after a Palestinian heckler accused Palantir of killing Palestinians with AI, CEO Alex Karp retorted, 'Mostly terrorists, that's true.' Galili, the Israeli investor, said the war disrupted travel for investors and founders. But she said, 'overall we've seen a lot of support from tech leaders. I'm based in Silicon Valley and my day to day is interacting with investors in Silicon Valley. There was day-to-day a lot of support.' There are still other factors that could slow down Israel's tech dominance. President Donald Trump has announced huge deals to sell semiconductors and build data centers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which could eventually become tech powerhouses. A more tangible cloud on the horizon might be internal politics. Before October 7, Israel was riven by protests over a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to overhaul the judicial system. That began scaring investors away. A new survey by AllJobs finds nearly three-quarters of Israeli workers considering relocation overseas. 'Many things can spark political unrest,' Galili said. 'External threats we can deal with, internal threats – we're still working on it.' California AI bills get delayed After hitting legislative hurdles, lawmakers are putting off their push for two pathbreaking AI bills in Sacramento, POLITICO's California Decoded team reports. One bill, sponsored by assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, has pitted Hollywood against the tech industry. AB 412 would allow copyright owners to request information on the datasets that developers use to train their AI models. Hollywood power players, like the actors union SAG-AFTRA, have backed the bill as a tool for artists to protect their rights. However, the AI industry has warned that AB 412 would stifle innovation. Bauer-Kahan has paused her efforts to pass the bill until 2026. Her spokesperson told POLITICO's Tyler Katzenberger that this will give them time to 'resolve outstanding issues.' Democratic state Sen. Jerry McNerney is also delaying action on SB 813, which would create expert panels to vet AI systems, after the bill got stuck in the Senate Appropriations Committee. If passed, developers would have the option to voluntarily submit their models for inspection in exchange for legal protections in personal injury cases. The Decoded team reported that a mysterious nonprofit called Fathom has been advocating for the bill since its inception. Fathom has $25 million in funding, though it hasn't disclosed who exactly its donors are. It's 'crypto week' at the House The House is set to vote on two cryptocurrency bills during what Republicans lawmakers are calling 'crypto week,' staffers told POLITICO's Jasper Goodman. On Wednesday, the House is expected to vote on legislation that would effectively ban Federal Reserve banks from issuing digital currencies. Republicans have expressed concerns that such assets would give the government too much power in the cryptocurrency space. However, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) wrote in a May House Financial Services Committee report that cryptocurrency backed by central banks could have 'a greater potential to gain broad public trust and utilization (especially after numerous digital assets have been used to defraud Americans).' The House will then vote on Thursday on the Senate's GENIUS Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins — cryptocurrency that is pegged to another kind of asset, like the dollar. It includes provisions to split up oversight duties among market regulators and implement measures against money laundering. If passed, the legislation could lend more legitimacy to stablecoins, and allow financial institutions to get more involved in the cryptocurrency sector. Trump's sons notably founded a cryptocurrency firm last year known as World Liberty Financial Inc., which issues a stablecoin. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Indian Express
14-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Top 10 Indian-origin billionaires in the United States (2025): India overtakes Israel as top source of foreign-born billionaires
Top 10 Richest Indian Americans 2025: In 2025, the world counts nearly 3,000 billionaires across 78 countries, with a combined net worth of $16.1 trillion. Roughly one-third of them reside in the United States of America, 14 per cent of whom are foreign-born, collectively holding wealth worth $1.3 trillion. According to Forbes, about 93 per cent of these foreign-born billionaires are self-made, with the majority building their fortunes in technology (53 billionaires) and finance (28 billionaires). Notably, three of the world's top ten billionaires are foreign-born: Elon Musk (originally from South Africa), Google cofounder Sergey Brin (Russia), and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (Taiwan). Indian-origin entrepreneurs continue to rise as major players in the US economy. The number of Indian-origin billionaires in the United States has more than doubled from five in 2022 to twelve in 2025. India now ranks as the top country of origin for foreign-born billionaires in the US, overtaking Israel, according to the latest Forbes list. Jay Chaudhry, founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm Zscaler, leads the group, ranking eighth with a net worth of $17.9 billion (Rs 1,790 crore, approximately). The 2025 list also features several high-profile additions, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks since 2018. Source: Forbes' America's Richest Immigrants 2025 Source: Forbes' America's Richest Immigrants 2025
