Follow-Up: Alphabet Loses About $500 Billion in Market Value in One Day as Shares Fall 12.6% in Worst Session Since 2004 IPO
Shares of Google's parent Alphabet fell 12.6% on October 29, the company's worst single day since its 2004 initial public offering, erasing about $500 billion of market value and cutting its capitalization from roughly $3.9 trillion to $3.4 trillion. It was the second-largest one-day market-value loss in U.S. stock market history, behind only Nvidia's roughly $589 billion drop on January 27, 2025.
The sell-off followed the third-quarter results GSM reported a day earlier: revenue of $127.6 billion, up 25%, slightly below the $128.2 billion analysts expected; core search advertising revenue up 12% to $63.35 billion, a marked slowdown from 17% in the second quarter; capital spending of $51.4 billion that pushed free cash flow to negative $9.07 billion; and earnings per share of $2.12, including an $8.7 billion equity-investment loss tied to the company's SpaceX stake. Alphabet also raised its full-year capital-spending guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion.
The bright spot was the cloud business: Google Cloud revenue jumped 103% to $30.7 billion, with operating income of $11.1 billion.
Broader markets fell as well: the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.38% to 26,184.73, the S&P 500 lost 0.30% to 7,720.39 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.25% to 52,342.56. ServiceNow plunged 25% on the day, while Amazon fell as much as 10% and Intel 17% in after-hours trading.
Several banks cut their price targets on Alphabet. Some analysts called the rout a concentrated challenge to the payoff timeline for massive AI spending; others pointed to the cloud unit's doubling revenue as evidence the investment is already producing returns.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图为谷歌位于加州山景城的园区（图源：Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 3.0） / Google's campus in Mountain View, California (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
- 2026-10-28Alphabet Q3 Revenue Rises 25% to About $128 Billion as Google Cloud Surges 103% and the Gemini App Reaches One Billion Users
- 2026-10-29Follow-Up: Alphabet Loses About $500 Billion in Market Value in One Day as Shares Fall 12.6% in Worst Session Since 2004 IPOThis story
