Google stock surges 65% in 2025, outperforming other tech giants
What's the story
Google's parent company Alphabet has recorded its best year on Wall Street since 2009. The company's stock price jumped by an impressive 65% in 2025, beating even its own performance in 2021. The surge comes after a rough start to the year when President Donald Trump threatened massive tariffs on trading partners.
Market dominance
Alphabet outperforms other tech giants in 2025
Among the eight tech companies with a market cap of over $1 trillion, Alphabet was the biggest gainer in 2025. Chipmakers Broadcom and NVIDIA followed with gains of 49% and 39%, respectively. Despite skepticism about its ability to stay relevant in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), Google has managed to maintain its market position.
Strategic moves
Google's response to AI competition and market challenges
Google faced stiff competition from OpenAI's ChatGPT and Sora services, which have been gaining traction among consumers. The company also had to deal with concerns over the future of online advertising in an AI-dominated world. In Q1 2025, Alphabet's stock fell by 18%—its worst performance since mid-2022. However, things started looking up in Q2 when Google promoted Josh Woodward as head of Gemini app—its answer to ChatGPT.
Growth trajectory
Gemini app's success and AI talent acquisition
Under Woodward's leadership, the Gemini app launched image generator Nano Banana in August 2025. The feature quickly went viral, allowing users to create personalized digitized figurines by blending multiple photos. By September, the app had crossed five billion images and even dethroned OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple's App Store. Google also brought in Varun Mohan—the co-founder and CEO of AI coding start-up Windsurf—along with other research and development employees from the company through a $2.4B agreement involving licensing fees and compensation.
Court ruling
Google's legal victory and data-sharing requirement
Despite losing an antitrust case in 2024 Google won a major legal battle in September 2025. US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe penalties proposed by the Justice Department after finding that Google held an illegal monopoly in internet search. The ruling allows Google to continue paying companies to preload products and keep Chrome under its wing, but it has been ordered to share certain data with competitors.
AI influence
Gemini's growth and Google's AI investments impact search business
Google launched an upgraded AI model, Gemini 3, in November 2025. Although it still trails ChatGPT in terms of usage, its market share has been growing rapidly. According to Similarweb data from December 2025, ChatGPT's generative AI traffic share fell to about 68% from last year's 87%, while Gemini's jumped to roughly 18% from about five% over the same period.
Financial forecast
Analysts predict strong revenue growth for Alphabet
Analysts expect Alphabet's fourth-quarter revenue to grow by 15% to over $111 billion when it reports results this month. They also expect growth throughout 2026 to be in the low teens. In October, Alphabet raised its capital spending forecast for 2025 to as high as $93 billion from $85 billion. The number is expected to jump further to over $114 billion in 2026, according to FactSet.