A Closer Look at Alphabet (GOOG): The Impact of AI on Established Market Leaders

Group 1 - Harding Loevner's Global Equity Strategy reported a gross return of 2.62% and a net return of 2.52% for Q3 2025, underperforming the MSCI All Country World Index and MSCI World Index, which returned 7.74% and 7.36% respectively [1] - Year-to-date, the strategy has risen 10.61% net, compared to 18.86% for the MSCI All Country World Index and 17.83% for the MSCI World Index [1] - The last six months have been characterized as one of the strongest momentum phases in over 70 years, with high-momentum stocks outperforming low-momentum stocks by 45 percentage points, largely driven by advancements in AI [1] Group 2 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was highlighted as a key stock, with a one-month return of 12.36% and a 52-week gain of 83.94% [2] - As of December 03, 2025, Alphabet Inc. closed at $320.62 per share, with a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion [2] Group 3 - The investor letter noted that the focus on "AI winners" is shifting, with a 70% turnover in Bank of America's US AI Beneficiaries Index this year [3] - Despite initial fears regarding Alphabet's search business being overshadowed by AI chatbots, the company's AI offerings for businesses are gaining traction, with its Gemini models having an enterprise user base three times larger than ChatGPT's [3] - Alphabet has regained its position among the "winners" in the AI space due to its strong technical offerings and progress in AI [3]