New York, February 26, 2026, 10:48 (EST) — Regular session.
Alphabet’s non-voting Class C shares (GOOG) dropped 2.9% to $303.93 in morning trading Thursday, moving between $302.41 and $313.00. The Nasdaq shed 1.45%. Big chip stocks took hits, too.
Shares slipped after Reuters reported Google is ready to test tweaks to its European search results, aiming to boost visibility for competitors as the European Commission considers possible violations of the Digital Markets Act. Under the plan, high-ranking “vertical search services” — niche engines covering hotels, flights, and restaurants — would be displayed by default next to Google’s own offerings. Penalties under the DMA can run as high as 10% of global revenue. Since 2017, Google has handed over 9.71 billion euros in antitrust fines to the EU. Reuters
Alphabet’s expanding data centers are drawing attention to soaring energy needs, with AI workloads eating up more power. Google, for its part, inked new supply deals this week with AES and Xcel Energy. The power hunt isn’t limited to Google: Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon’s AWS have all lined up agreements with U.S. utilities too, as companies jockey for enough juice.
Xcel plans to power a new Google data center in Pine Island, Minnesota, while bringing 1,900 megawatts of clean energy online and putting $50 million toward a battery initiative. “Data centers are the backbone of the 21st century economy,” said Bria Shea, who heads Xcel Energy’s operations across Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Xcel Energy Newsroom
AES has lined up 20-year power purchase deals in Texas for generation sited next to Google’s upcoming Wilbarger County data center campus. “New clean generation online” will help blunt the grid strain and keep energy costs manageable, according to Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy. PR Newswire
Alphabet faced fresh regulatory heat Wednesday, as a Russian court handed Google a fine exceeding 22 million roubles for offering VPN services through Google Play, state news agency TASS reported. VPNs—virtual private networks—let users skirt internet restrictions.
The stock is still facing uncertainty around spending. Earlier this month, Alphabet projected capital expenditures between $175 billion and $185 billion for 2026, covering data centers, servers, and similar assets. “We are seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board,” CEO Sundar Pichai said at the time. Reuters
Google has said before that tweaking search rankings might actually lead users into longer searches and costlier results—a point regulators and competitors are unlikely to let go of as Europe steps up enforcement. If the EU takes new action on the DMA case, it targets search directly. That’s Alphabet’s top revenue stream.
March 3 is shaping up as the next big date: CFO Anat Ashkenazi is on the docket to speak at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. Traders will be tuned in for updates on capital spending, data-center buildouts, and where things stand with Google’s European search tests.
