Will Google Pass Nvidia in 2026 as the World’s Biggest Company?

Core Viewpoint - The stock market recognizes Alphabet as the leading AI software company, surpassing Microsoft and approaching Apple in market capitalization [3][9]. Group 1: Market Position - Alphabet is less than $200 billion away from overtaking Apple as the world's second-largest company [3][9]. - Nvidia remains the leader in AI hardware with a $755 billion lead over Google, but this gap is perceived as manageable by Wall Street [3]. Group 2: Competitive Landscape - There are skeptics who believe AI will replace Google's search engine business, but this argument is considered flawed [4]. - Google has begun to enter the AI hardware market, potentially competing with Nvidia [4]. Group 3: AI Model Performance - Google has made significant advancements in AI, with its AI "Bard" model improving after an initial disappointing rollout [6][7]. - Google now holds four of the top ten AI models on LLMArena, outperforming OpenAI, which has only one model in the top ten [7][9]. - In image and text-to-video AI models, Google is leading, with its latest Nano Banana Pro image model surpassing OpenAI's offerings [8]. Group 4: Business Developments - Meta is negotiating significant purchases of Google's TPUs, indicating strong demand for Google's AI hardware [9]. - Anthropic has purchased 1 million TPUs from Google instead of Nvidia, showcasing a shift in preference among AI companies [9].