On Thursday, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw its share price fall by roughly 12 percent, wiping out about $480 billion in market capitalization in a single day. According to the U.S. edition of Forbes, this ranks as the second-largest one-day market-value loss in stock-market history; in dollar terms it may be Alphabet’s worst single trading day to date.
Share prices and previous records
Both the Class A (GOOGL) and Class C (GOOG) shares fell 12.5 percent, to about $284 and $281 respectively. Alphabet’s previous worst day was July 23, 2026, when its stock dropped 7 percent after the second-quarter earnings release, costing roughly $275 billion in market value.
The overall record remains with NVIDIA: on January 27, 2025, its shares plunged 17 percent, erasing $589 billion. SpaceX had previously held the second spot, when it fell 16 percent in a single day in June and lost $400 billion in value, growing to $600 billion in losses over a subsequent three-day sell-off.
What triggered the sell-off?
In its third-quarter report released after the close on Wednesday, Alphabet reported revenue of $127.6 billion, below investor expectations. Revenue excluding partner payments was $111.2 billion. The weaker-than-expected results intensified concerns about the company’s large-scale investments in artificial intelligence and fed broader investor nerves across the technology sector.
Separately, Google Cloud revenue rose 103 percent year-on-year to $30.7 billion, beating analysts’ expected $29.2 billion. Nevertheless, that strong cloud performance did not calm markets: the stock fell an additional 8 percent in after-hours trading following the report.
Founders’ net worth took a hit
On Forbes’s real-time billionaires list, Larry Page (pictured on the cover) is ranked fourth; he lost roughly $31 billion in net worth, bringing his fortune to $236 billion. Sergey Brin, ranked fifth, lost about $29 billion, leaving him with $217.2 billion.
Why this matters
The rapid, large-scale market-value decline highlights investor sensitivity to the cost and near-term financial impact of major AI investments. While Google Cloud’s revenue growth is strong, the overall revenue miss and continued investment spending have increased uncertainty around Alphabet’s valuation, contributing to elevated nervousness across the tech sector.
