What's Going On With Alphabet Stock Thursday?

Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL shares are trading lower Thursday after initially popping late Wednesday on reports the company is considering charging users for AI-powered search. Here’s what you need to know.

What To Know: Google is exploring potentially charging its users for new "premium" search features powered by generative AI, according to a report from the Financial Times.

The company is reportedly looking into options including adding AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already come with access to the company's Gemini AI assistant. This would mark the first time Google has put any part of its core Search product behind a paywall. Google's traditional search engine is expected to remain free of charge.

People familiar with the matter reportedly said engineers are currently working on developing the technology needed for a paid service feature, but noted executives have not yet made a final decision on if they will actually launch the new premium features. 

The news comes more than a year after Microsoft Corp MSFT launched its own AI-powered search tool called Copilot, using OpenAI's ChatGPT technology in its Bing search engine.

Google's Search business and related ads generated approximately $175 billion in revenue for the company in 2023, representing more than half of Alphabet's total sales.

Related Link: Despite Elon Musk Suing OpenAI, Sam Altman Calls Musk The ‘Greatest Builder Of Our Time’

Is GOOG A Good Stock To Buy?

Wall Street analysts view Alphabet on the whole as an Outperform, given the history of coverage over the past three months. Shyam Patil from Susquehanna is the most optimistic, expecting a 13.33% rise in the stock in the coming year.

But looking at how the market as a whole thinks of the stock, you can reference historical price action for views on whether investors feel strongly about the stock one way or another. In the past three months, Alphabet rose 12.39%, which indicates that opinion improved on the business and how attractive it is to own based on either its stock price, or underlying fundamentals, like revenue, which rose 13.49% over the past year.

A complete overview of how Wall Street views individual stocks is available here, while real time updates on the latest analyst actions will be delivered via Benzinga PRO. Try it for free.

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GOOG Price Action: Alphabet shares initially traded up to around $160 on the report before reversing course and turning negative. Alphabet shares were down 0.91% at $154.95 Thursday morning, according to Benzinga Pro.

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