Forget SpaceX. Alphabet Just Beat Earnings by 94% and Doubled Its Cloud Backlog to $460 Billion
SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) is the ticker dominating every group chat this week, with the private-company exposure vehicle gaining 19.18% in five trading days on pure rocket-launch euphoria. But here is what you should actually be watching. The…
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SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX | SPCX Price Prediction) is the ticker dominating every group chat this week, with the private-company exposure vehicle gaining 19.18% in five trading days on pure rocket-launch euphoria. But here is what you should actually be watching.
The space narrative is colliding with a wall. Tighter global liquidity, sticky policy rates, and a Federal Reserve that is expected to cut only once in the first half of 2026 are about to meet the multi-billion-dollar capital expenditure cycles that space exploration requires to justify a $1.44 trillion implied valuation. SPCX gives you no public earnings, no disclosed margins, no P/E ratio, and no audited cash flow. You are buying a story wrapper on a private balance sheet at the exact moment the macro is least forgiving to capital-intensive hardware bets. The crowd has done this dance before. It rarely ends with the late buyers paid.
Now consider the cash-generative alternative: Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), trading at $363.79 after a 8.3% one-month pullback.
1. A Cloud Monopoly That Is Still Accelerating
Google Cloud posted $20.03 billion in Q1 2026 revenue, growing 63% year-over-year, with growth accelerating from 48% in Q4 2025. Backlog nearly doubled quarter-on-quarter to over $460 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai put it plainly: “Google Cloud revenues grew 63% with backlog nearly doubling quarter on quarter to over $460 billion.” Gemini is processing 16 billion tokens per minute via direct API use, and Gemini Enterprise paid monthly active users grew 40% quarter-on-quarter. This is the enterprise AI infrastructure layer.
2. Valuation Discipline at $2 Trillion-Plus
GOOGL trades at a P/E of roughly 16x earnings with a 3.43% free cash flow yield and a 29.6% return on invested capital. Operating margin sits at 36.1%, up two percentage points year-over-year. Q1 2026 EPS came in at $5.11, a 94.1% beat versus the $2.63 consensus, the fourth consecutive beat. Revenue grew 21.8% to $109.90 billion. That combination of growth and price is rare for any mega-cap, let alone the one funding the AI infrastructure other companies are paying to rent.
3. A Fortress Balance Sheet Built for Macro Volatility
Debt-to-equity sits at 0.143, interest coverage at 903x, with $38.06 billion in cash and equivalents. Alphabet just raised its quarterly dividend 5% to $0.22 per share while funding $175 to $185 billion in 2026 CapEx out of operating cash flow. When liquidity tightens, companies that have to issue equity or debt to fund AI buildouts get punished. Alphabet self-funds. Analyst consensus reflects this asymmetry: 14 Strong Buy and 43 Buy ratings against zero Sell calls.
The retail crowd is finally catching on. The top r/stocks post of the month, with 2,134 upvotes and 569 comments, titled the thesis directly: “For those who keep asking for a ‘one buy and hold for the next 10 years’ the opportunity is here: it’s GOOGL.” Prediction markets back the conviction, with traders assigning a 96.3% probability GOOGL closes June above $330.
For investors researching the AI infrastructure trade, GOOGL warrants a closer look ahead of the next earnings report or the next macro flush, whichever comes first.
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Alex Sirois is a financial writer with experience spanning both retail and institutional investing. He has written for InvestorPlace and held roles at BNY Mellon and Bernstein, giving him a perspective that bridges Main Street portfolios and Wall Street analysis.
Alex holds an MBA from George Washington University and has built his career across multiple industries, including e-commerce, education, and translation — a breadth of experience that informs how he breaks down complex financial topics for everyday investors. His writing is conversational, actionable, and grounded in long-term, buy-and-hold investing principles.
At 247 Wall St., Alex focuses on delivering analysis that is both accessible and useful, with a clear emphasis on helping readers make more informed decisions with their money.
