Alphabet (GOOG) Rallied with Strong Performance from Cloud

Soumya Eswaran

Thu, July 9, 2026 at 5:48 AM PDT 3 min read

Lakehouse Capital, a Sydney-based investment manager, published its "Lakehouse Global Growth Fund" investor letter for April 2026. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In April, several portfolio companies reported earnings. Overall, updates were positive, indicating that the companies continue to execute on growth opportunities and show strong fundamentals. The fund returned -0.8% net of fees and expenses, whereas its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index Net Total Returns (AUD), returned 5.0%. The Fund has returned 119.9% since its inception compared to 159.3% for its benchmark. In addition, please check the Fund's top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.

In its April 2026 investor letter, Lakehouse Global Growth Fund highlighted Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, offers various platforms and services, including online search and advertising, cloud solutions, and artificial intelligence. On July 8, 2026, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) closed at $358.71 per share. One-month return of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was 0.60%, and its shares gained 100.73% over the past 52 weeks. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has a market capitalization of $4.38 trillion.

Palm Valley Capital Management stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its April 2026 investor update:

"At the portfolio level, the biggest contributor to performance during the month was Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (+26.8%), which delivered a strong quarterly result that was well received by investors. Alphabet delivered a strong first-quarter result, with constant currency revenue and operating income growth accelerating to 19% and 30% respectively. Search re-accelerated on continued strength in the retail and financial services sectors, lifting volume growth to 13% while cost per click held broadly steady at 5%. AI Overviews continue to contribute to overall Search growth, and AI Mode is scaling rapidly, expanding the share of monetisable queries and reinforcing the view that Search is in an expansionary phase rather than facing cannibalisation.

Moving to Cloud, which was again a standout, with revenue accelerating to 63% as improved capacity availability enabled further conversion of backlog into revenue. Adoption of Gemini models remains strong and new customer acquisition doubled year-on-year, while capacity remains constrained, with backlog nearly doubling quarter-on-quarter to over $460 billion. The backlog also includes a new revenue stream through TPU hardware sales, with more meaningful revenue contributions expected from 2027. As the only hyperscaler with a fully integrated AI stack, we believe Alphabet is well placed to benefit from the AI tailwind, and with the sizeable backlog underpinning further investment in expanding capacity and continued growth ahead..." (Click here to read the full text)