Alphabet (GOOG) Reported Strong Results Despite AI Disruption

Market Overview - The equity market rally continued in Q3 2025, driven by strong corporate earnings, increased AI investment, and expectations of economic support from US fiscal policy and lower interest rates [1] - Artisan Value Fund's Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned 0.83%, 0.91%, and 0.90% respectively, compared to a 5.33% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index [1] Company Focus: Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) - Alphabet Inc. was highlighted as a top contributor in Q3, with total revenue growing 14% year-over-year, driven by search and cloud services [3] - Cloud revenue for Alphabet grew 32% year-over-year, with significant acceleration in large deals, including $1 billion deals in the first half of 2025 equaling all of FY24 [3] - The number of monthly tokens monetized by Google has doubled since May, reaching 980, and the user base for its Gemini chatbot increased from 350 million to 450 million [3] - Alphabet's stock has risen over 70% since its April lows, trading around 24 times forward-year earnings estimates, with its valuation now in line with the S&P 500 Index [3] - Despite the stock's rapid increase, the company believes its valuation remains attractive due to strong fundamentals, leading to profit-taking to normalize position size [3]