Alphabet Stock Slides 1.44 as Google Cloud AI Surge Drives $106B Order Backlog and Spending Hike—Trading Volume Falls to $6.58B 14th in Market Activity

Alphabet (GOOGL) closed on August 1, 2025, with a 1.44% decline, marking a drop in trading volume to $6.58 billion, a 33.4% decrease from the previous day, ranking 14th in market activity. The stock’s performance followed mixed developments from its recent earnings report and strategic updates. CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted a $106 billion order backlog in Google Cloud driven by AI demand, signaling sustained infrastructure expansion. The company raised its 2025 capital expenditure forecast to $85 billion, up from $75 billion, to meet growing computational needs for advanced AI models like Gemini 2.5.

Alphabet’s Q2 results showed Google Cloud revenue growth accelerating to 32% year-on-year, fueled by increased enterprise adoption of AI tools. The segment’s client base expanded to over 85,000 businesses, with Gemini model usage surging 35-fold compared to the prior year. This surge underscores the critical role of data center capacity in supporting next-generation AI applications. However, the company acknowledged supply constraints, as AI workloads requiring reasoning capabilities demand significantly higher computing power than traditional models.

Alphabet’s growth trajectory intersects with broader industry trends. Alphabet’s CapitalG division and Nvidia are reportedly in talks to co-invest in Vast Data, an AI infrastructure provider, in a funding round potentially valuing the startup at $30 billion. Vast Data’s technology optimizes data flow in AI data centers, aligning with Alphabet’s need for scalable storage solutions. The partnership highlights the strategic importance of infrastructure providers in sustaining the AI boom, though no immediate IPO plans have been confirmed for Vast Data.

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