Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL), said the explosion of artificial intelligence (A.I.) has created an opportunity to invest in start-ups.
Pichai’s comments come with Alphabet poised to earn $100 billion U.S. from its 2015 bet on Elon Musk’s SpaceX once the commercial space company goes public in June of this year.
“You know SpaceX, Anthropic and so on so, I think now with the A.I. shift, there are more opportunities on which we can deploy capital in a good way and so we are doing that,” Pichai said in an interview.
Alphabet has long invested in start-up companies. But with today’s A.I. race underway, the technology giant is seeking out more opportunities.
Alphabet first invested in SpaceX in 2015, putting in $900 million U.S. at a then valuation of $12 billion U.S.
Ahead of its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), SpaceX merged with Elon Musk’s A.I. start-up xAI in a deal valued at $1.25 trillion U.S.
Assuming Alphabet has held onto its SpaceX shares, its stake would now be worth around $100 billion U.S.
Last week, SpaceX confidentially filed for an IPO, and the company is reportedly seeking a valuation of $1.75 trillion U.S. in what’s expected to be a record market debut.
Alphabet has also invested in A.I. start-up Anthropic. In 2023, Google invested $300 million U.S. in the A.I. company for a 10% stake. It later invested an additional $2 billion U.S.
Since then, Anthropic’s valuation has soared to $380 billion U.S. Alphabet now reportedly owns a 14% stake in the start-up company.
Pichai’s comments suggest that Alphabet is eyeing additional investments as it’s A.I. returns grow and exceed expectations.
GOOGL stock has gained 111% over the past 12 months to trade at $305.46 U.S. per share.
