Alphabet Stock Upgrade Fuels 2026 Upside
Alphabet stock upgrade and bullish analyst notes cite the AI stack and Waymo gains, prompting institutional flows and renewed price-target focus.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to Overweight and raised its price target to $370, citing Gemini AI monetization.
- An early-January compilation of four positive rating revisions implies up to 21% upside over 52 weeks.
- Waymo's Ojai robotaxi entered final internal testing and planned rollouts could expand long-term revenue optionality.
HIGH POTENTIAL TRADES SENT DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX
Add your email to receive our free daily newsletter. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Alphabet Inc. (Class A: GOOGL; Class C: GOOG) received a stock upgrade on Jan. 8, 2026 ET, accompanied by bullish analyst notes highlighting the company’s AI stack and potential Waymo expansion. This renewed investor interest in Alphabet’s multi-year growth prospects.
Analyst Upgrades and Price Targets
Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Alphabet to Overweight from Neutral and raised its price target to $370 from $310. The firm cited confidence that Google’s Gemini AI system will gain share against rivals and boost monetization in search and cloud services. This revision strengthened the valuation case for the shares and spurred investors to reassess how Alphabet’s AI investments could drive core-business growth.
Separately, analyst Deepak Mathivanan also raised his rating to Overweight, emphasizing Alphabet’s advantage across cloud infrastructure, computing power, foundational AI models, and end-user applications. He projected multi-year benefits as AI integrates into search, productivity tools, and cloud services over a two-to-three-year horizon. This full-stack AI thesis supports expectations for multiple monetization channels rather than reliance on a single product shift.
An aggregation of four positive rating revisions in early January implies up to 21% upside for Alphabet shares over the next 52 weeks. This consensus has refocused market conversations on near-term gains while keeping the longer AI adoption timeline central to analyst models.
Waymo Expansion and Market Momentum
Waymo’s Ojai robotaxi, co-developed with Zeekr, debuted at CES 2026 and has entered final internal testing in San Francisco and Phoenix. Waymo employees and their families can request rides in these trials. The vehicle retains a steering wheel to comply with current regulatory requirements ahead of commercial launch. These steps indicate management’s push toward scaled deployments, positioning Waymo as an incremental growth driver rather than an immediate earnings contributor.
Waymo currently operates robotaxi services in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. It plans to expand into more than ten additional cities over the next year, including Denver, Las Vegas, and London. Successful rollouts would broaden Waymo’s footprint and maintain its visibility as a potential contributor to Alphabet’s growth beyond search, AI, and cloud.
U.S. lawmakers are scheduled to review proposals aimed at increasing autonomous-vehicle deployments. Such regulatory developments could ease restrictions on robotaxi fleets, providing a tailwind for scaled expansion. Analysts note that fleet-level permissions and operating frameworks remain key factors in the pace of service growth.
Top institutional funds have been adding to Alphabet positions, providing strong sponsorship for the shares. Alphabet’s market capitalization is cited at about $3.9 trillion, edging toward $4 trillion, and has surpassed Apple’s for the first time since 2019. This combination of heavy fund ownership and a prominent valuation milestone supports the bullish narrative despite mixed broader market signals.
