Google's Legal Offensive, a $15 Billion Malaysia Bet and the AI Tab Wall Street Is Watching
Published on 11/09/2026 at 06:11 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Alphabet spent Thursday playing offense and defense at the same time. Its Google unit sued California over a law that curbs certain social-media features for children under 16, seeking to block enforcement, according to Reuters. Meta Platforms and TikTok filed their own separate challenges to the same rule.
The courtroom move landed alongside fresh scrutiny of how Google treats minors in schools. The Guardian reported Tuesday that schools lose access to Google Search through their accounts entirely if they switch off the AI features meant for students — a setup that drew fire from teachers and public officials. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former FTC chair Lina Khan were among the critics, per media reports, taking aim at the mandatory use of AI inside Google Search for school users.
Capital Commitments Pile Up
On the investment side, Google said Wednesday it would sink US$15 billion into Malaysia, a package spanning digital infrastructure, local jobs, water replenishment and clean-energy measures.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Alphabet?
That announcement came as investors were already stewing over the scale and payoff of AI spending across big tech. Alphabet came under pressure Thursday in a broad selloff of AI-linked names as shareholders questioned those outlays. The stock clawed back 1.5% on Friday.
Wells Fargo analyst Ken Gawrelski had cut his price target on Alphabet to $365 from $371 on November 2, keeping an "Overweight" rating, according to media reports. His reasoning put a finer point on the search business: he tied the fading momentum in search revenue chiefly to the growing reach of AI Overviews. Headlines about the midterm elections and Democratic gains also had investors weighing possible obstacles to data-center buildouts, stacking infrastructure concerns on top of questions about the economic returns on AI.
A Quarter That Fell Short
The backdrop is Alphabet's third-quarter 2026 report, delivered roughly two weeks ago, which came in below Wall Street's expectations. Revenue reached $127.58 billion against analyst forecasts of $127.97 billion, AP reported. Search and other advertising revenue climbed 12% to $63.3 billion — growth that also undershot some analysts' estimates — while YouTube ad revenue rose 9% to $11.2 billion. Earnings per share came in at $2.12, including an $8.7 billion loss on equity investments.
Management used the release to flag that capital expenditures would rise significantly in 2027, without attaching a figure. The message left investors juggling two storylines at once: how the advertising engine is performing, and how much more cash the company intends to burn.
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