CEO Sundar Pichai Says Google Is Having a ‘Terrific Start’ to the Year. Mag-7 Investors Agree as GOOGL Stock Leads the Way.

Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) stock is up 26% in just the past month, and it isn’t surprising if you were following all the good news that was brewing for over a year. This is the only hyperscaler that touches almost every high-growth sector you can think of. Cloud? Google has it. Hardware? Google sells TPUs. AI? Google is closing the gap and has taken the lead in many areas.

Investors still don’t think the company is done. It is instead chasing the title of being a leading hyperscaler stock among the Magnificent 7. Alphabet has very competitively developed its AI software-development stack, and the fruits of it are lifting the entire business. The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, certainly agrees, and so do Mag-7 investors.

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Why “2026 Is Off to a Terrific Start”

Sundar Pichai opened the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call with a clear message of momentum: “2026 is off to a terrific start.” He attributed the strong performance to Google’s “AI investments and full-stack approach,” stating they are “lighting up every part of the business.”

This wasn’t just executive optimism, as Alphabet reported its 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Consolidated revenues hit $109.9 billion for the quarter. It’s up 22% year-over-year (YoY) and has beaten analyst estimates of $107.2 billion.

Is Alphabet Leading the Mag-7 Now?

If you look at year-to-date (YTD) performance, GOOGL stock is a winner among all Mag-7 stocks, and the gap could widen even more due to Google’s dominance being entrenched in AI. Not only that, but previous doom and gloom scenarios about Google losing its market share in search did not materialize.

Google owns your search bar, and it has profitably managed to integrate AI into it. Most people can comfortably open a new tab and search for whatever they want. And most importantly, they can ask the search bar whatever question they have in mind. The answer they will get will be either in line with what ChatGPT would get you or maybe a tiny bit worse. Regardless, going into ChatGPT is much more cumbersome, so it’s not gaining market share against Google in any meaningful way.