Google parent Alphabet suffered its worst trading day on record on Thursday 29 October 2026, after quarterly results left investors uneasy about the cost of its artificial-intelligence push and the pace of growth in its core search business.

Alphabet's Class A shares fell $41.11, or 12.65%, to close at $283.78 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, the largest close-to-close percentage loss on record for the stock. The New York Post put the one-day loss in market value at about $500 billion, making it the second-largest single-day value loss for any stock, behind Nvidia's roughly $589 billion fall on 27 January 2025.

The headline revenue figure still showed strong growth. Revenue for the quarter ended 30 September rose 25% from a year earlier to $127.58 billion. Cloud revenue more than doubled, rising 103% to $30.7 billion, while the Search and other segment grew 12% to $63.35 billion. Net income available to common stockholders fell to $26.17 billion, from $34.98 billion a year earlier.

Why spending worried investors

The concern was cash, not demand alone. Property and equipment purchases totalled $51.355 billion in the quarter, and free cash flow was negative $9.065 billion. That was worse than the previous quarter's negative $5.9 billion, and worse than market expectations that cash flow would come close to breaking even. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.67 missed expectations of $3.02, while total revenue also came in below the $128.2 billion expected.

Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said capital spending would increase significantly next year, driven by the AI race. Search revenue growth also slowed to 12%, down from 17% in the second quarter and 19% in the first, and missed forecasts for a second straight quarter.

Wider market impact

The fall dragged the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 1.4% on Thursday, while the S&P 500 fell 0.3%, although TokenPost noted most US stocks rose that day. Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai said query growth was the highest in five years, including commercial queries.

Sources: New York Post; TokenPost.