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Analyst Thinks DoJ Case Against Alphabet (GOOG) Will Take Up To 8 Years to Settle

We recently published a list of Top 10 Trending AI Stocks in Q4. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) stands against other top trending AI stocks in Q4. As LLMs continue to hog data from the open internet for training, publishers are growing concerned about their intellectual […] Read More...

We recently published a list of Top 10 Trending AI Stocks in Q4. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) stands against other top trending AI stocks in Q4.

As LLMs continue to hog data from the open internet for training, publishers are growing concerned about their intellectual property and compensation. In a latest development, The New York Times issued a cease and desist letter to Perplexity to stop using its data for training without permission.

Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management, while talking about this news on CNBC, said that these developments could prove “horrendous” for LLMs in the short term.

“The short-term economics for these large language models is horrendous, and so, I think it changes from bad to worse in the short term. I just want to put some quick context around those numbers. Right now, OpenAI pays NewsCorp about $50 million. They’re going to do about $4 billion in revenue this year and $11 billion next year, so, I mean, it’s measurable.”

However, Munster thinks in the long term, these licensing deals would not impact major LLM companies negatively given the ROI they’d be enjoying.

READ ALSO 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In

The analyst also made a prediction about Perplexity. He believes the company would be acquired because it’s competing with a lot of “big guns.” He quoted Oracle’s Larry Ellison who said that it takes about $100 billion to be a “proprietary” large language model.

“So, you look at the $6 billion at OpenAI, and you need to be raising in chunks of billions, not millions. Understand that it’s a big raise for a private company that’s moving quickly, but they’re going to get acquired. They’re just up against too many other big guns here to try to get to those coveted four or five spots of the LLM landscape.”

For this article we picked 10 AI stocks trending based on latest news. With each company we have mentioned its hedge fund sentiment. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

A laptop and phone open to Google’s services in an everyday setting.

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 165

Jefferies recently published a report citing an antitrust expert who believes it will take years for the DoJ to settle the case against Google.

“The antitrust expert hosted by our US Internet team believes it could take 3 to 8 years to settle,” analyst Edison Lee wrote in a note to clients.

The analyst specifically mentioned the impact of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s loss in this case on Apple.

“We est if AAPL loses 1/3 of GOOG rev (US only) as of FY28, our DCF will be ~8% (US$19) lower.”

Lee, who holds a Hold rating on Apple, indicated that the revenue decline would only affect the U.S., though he warned that other countries might also react if the DOJ is successful. He assumes there would be no compensation from a revenue-sharing agreement with Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) or other search engines, representing the most pessimistic scenario.

Oakmark Select Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was the top detractor during the quarter. The U.S.-based communication services company’s stock price fell after a U.S. District Court ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining a monopoly in general search engine services via exclusive distribution agreements. We think this case is unlikely to hurt Alphabet’s valuation over the long term as regulations previously en[1]acted in the European Union to address similar issues did not materially erode the company’s market share. We continue to believe that Alphabet is an attractive investment.”

Overall, GOOG ranks 6th on our list of top trending AI stocks in Q4. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOG, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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