This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) said its investment portfolio now includes $94.1 billion in shares of SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), a space-and-AI company, following SpaceX’s blockbuster initial public offering. Google was an early investor in SpaceX, and the rising value of the holding has helped lift Alphabet’s profit in recent quarters. The disclosure highlights the scale of Alphabet’s exposure to SpaceX and suggests the investment has become a major contributor to its reported financial performance.
However, Alphabet may not be able to sell most of the shares immediately because investors are often restricted from selling stock for a period after an IPO. In a quarterly filing, Google said $80 billion of its SpaceX shares are subject to short-term sale restrictions, while another $14.1 billion will remain under longer-term restrictions through the third quarter of next year. Investors may therefore view much of the $94.1 billion holding as restricted value rather than capital that Alphabet can immediately convert into cash.
Alphabet’s portfolio also includes an investment in Anthropic PBC, a fast-growing artificial intelligence company. Alphabet said gains across its investment holdings reached nearly $100 billion during the second quarter, helping boost net income. The sharp increase could strengthen Alphabet’s reported earnings, although the restrictions on its SpaceX shares may remain important for investors assessing how quickly those gains could become realizable.
