Alphabet shares rose 4% on Monday when the company officially joined the Dow Jones industrial indexreplacing Verizon and adding a symbolic representation of blue chips.
This move took place despite the constant pressure on the shares. Even with Monday’s gain, Alphabet is still tracking its worst month since last February, with six of the past seven weeks in the red. This marks a sharp reversal from May, when the company briefly went dark Nvidia after hours to become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
Dow’s incorporation into Alphabet is more symbolic than mechanical. The stock is already included in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes, where most of the comparable assets are located, limiting the amount of forced buying of funds tied to changes in the index.
Recent additions to the Dow have also struggled after joining: Nvidia, Salesforce and an apple all trade lower 60 days after entering the index.
The weakness in Google shares comes as investors question the benefits of the company’s lower-cost AI spending Chinese models improvement, Google DeepMind researchers associated with Gemini and coding tools leaving for competitors like Anthropic and OpenAIand access to computing is becoming both a customer constraint and a hiring challenge.
Alphabet reportedly does not have enough computing power to meet the demand of enterprise customers such as Metaand addresses infrastructure rivals including SpaceXto help bridge the gap. Alphabet did not respond to multiple requests for comment on reports of Meta Gemini’s use.
Access to computers has also become a recruiting tactic. Noam Shazira former Gemini executive who recently left Google for OpenAI reportedly cited declining access to computing as part of his frustration.
At the same time, Chinese models are slashing prices as Google tries to build an enterprise business around Gemini. DeepSeek said the fourth version of the open-source model will be released in two weeks.
This strain is now reflected on Alphabet’s balance sheet.
Its cash is shrinking, it missed a first-quarter buyback for the first time in nearly a decade, and it has raised more than $140 billion in debt and equity as the AI capital spending race heats up.
WATCH: Alphabet shares continue to slide as AI talent leaves DeepMind for Anthropic
Alphabet stock chart.
