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Alphabet (GOOGL) suffered its worst single‑day decline on Thursday, with the stock falling nearly 13% following the release of its third‑quarter results. The drop was the steepest since the company went public in 2004, surpassing earlier declines such as the more than 10% slide in March 2020 and September 2008.
Alphabet lost $482 billion in market value, marking the second‑largest one‑day loss for a U.S.‑listed company. Only Nvidia (NVDA) eclipsed this figure, losing about $593 billion on January 27, 2025, after Chinese AI startup DeepSeek rattled investors.
The loss far exceeded the previous benchmark of $400 billion, which had been set by SpaceX (SPCX) on June 22. Alphabet’s market‑value decline was the largest in dollar terms the company has ever experienced.
Alphabet’s prior worst loss was roughly $275 billion on July 23. The recent drop also represents the steepest decline following an earnings report since the IPO, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The previous record for a post‑earnings slide was a nearly 10% fall in July 2008.
In the quarter, Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to roughly $31 billion, and the Gemini app surpassed one billion users. However, search revenue grew 12% to about $63 billion, falling short of Wall Street’s consensus estimate of approximately $65 billion. Free cash flow swung to a loss of around $9 billion as AI investments rose, and the company’s stakes in AI labs added to the pressure.
“The bears argue that this is the first quarter where AI is beginning to seriously erode Google’s search business,” said Pivotal Research CEO Jeffrey Wlodarczak, commenting on investor sentiment.
CFRA analyst Angelo Zino remained more cautious, telling Yahoo Finance that the pullback likely represents a buying opportunity.
Such massive losses were rare in the past. U.S.‑listed stocks have shed $200 billion or more in a single session 18 times this year through Wednesday, up from 13 occurrences in all of 2025 and none before 2022, according to Yahoo Finance calculations based on Bloomberg data. Alphabet alone has lost roughly $1.4 trillion since reaching its peak in May.
Amazon (AMZN), the last of the major cloud providers to report this week, posted stronger growth but also a record cash burn after Thursday’s close. Amazon Web Services grew 39%, its fastest pace in nearly five years, while its 12‑month free cash flow fell to a record outflow exceeding $42 billion. The after‑hours decline in Amazon’s stock suggests that the pressure on AI‑focused spenders extends well beyond Google.
Internal AI tools helped analyze interview transcripts, research, and draft this post. Humans reviewed, edited, and fact‑checked this post before publication.
Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.
