TIP847: Alphabet (GOOGL): The Megacap That Still Might Be Underrated w/ Kyle Grieve & Shawn O’Malley
The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network
Quality of Earnings and Backlog Risks
Kyle warns against headline profits inflated by unrealized investment gains and emphasizes depreciation, customer solvency, and backlog quality.
In today’s episode, Kyle Grieve and Shawn O’Malley revisit Alphabet nearly two years after Shawn’s original pitch, tracing how the company transformed from a cash-rich, buyback-driven business into an aggressive spender on AI infrastructure. They walk through what changed across Search, YouTube, Cloud, and Waymo, and unpack why the market’s fears around AI disrupting Google were largely unfounded. Along the way, they dig into how Alphabet is funding its buildout, what that means for shareholders, and which questions will determine whether this evolved version of the business is actually better.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:03) Why Shawn’s original Alphabet thesis needed a revisit
(00:05:55) How the AI-kills-search narrative played out in reality
(00:32:00) Why Google Cloud’s margins surprised skeptical investors
(00:45:27) How Waymo went from afterthought to major asset
(00:51:27) How Alphabet’s AI spending flows through its earnings
(01:09:06) What Berkshire Hathaway’s growing stake signals about the company
(01:09:42) Why Alphabet paused buybacks and started raising equity
(01:13:11) Which unresolved questions will define Alphabet’s next few years
(01:19:06) Whether Kyle & Shawn will add to their Alphabet position in the Intrinsic Value Portfolio
Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
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- Our original podcast deep-dive on Alphabet.
- Check out our previous Intrinsic Value breakdowns: SpaceX, Microsoft, Meta.
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