NEW YORK, Feb 19, 2026, 18:20 ET — After-hours
- Alphabet Class C shares slipped roughly 0.1% in late trading, following New York’s decision to withdraw a plan aimed at loosening commercial robotaxi restrictions beyond New York City.
- That decision leaves a major Waymo expansion route stalled, with investors still searching for more concrete commercialization plans outside California and the Sun Belt.
- CEO Sundar Pichai is set to offload a small batch of Alphabet Class C shares, according to a filing that points to a pre-arranged trading plan.
Alphabet’s Class C shares (GOOG) slipped 0.1% in after-hours trading Thursday. The move followed news that New York Governor Kathy Hochul pulled a proposal that would have allowed commercial robotaxis beyond New York City.
Alphabet’s efforts with Waymo keep bumping up against politics and regulation, not just tech hurdles. Investors keep watching for any indication that the self-driving arm might actually turn into a more reliable business, instead of dragging on as an endless experiment.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Big tech stocks have bounced around lately, as traders debate whether AI names deserve such high price tags—and when, if ever, all that spending will pay off. Meanwhile, broader markets keep reacting to headlines that suggest, in Keith Buchanan’s words at GLOBALT Investments, “not everyone’s going to win.” Reuters
GOOG slipped 0.13% to close at $303.53, with shares moving within a $300.73 to $305.96 range during the session, Investing.com data show.
The Times Union reported that Hochul’s budget amendment stripped out a proposal giving New York’s DMV the green light to approve autonomous vehicle deployments in cities under 1 million people—a plan that came attached to a $1 million application fee and $500,000 renewal every four years. Labor groups like the Independent Driver’s Guild weren’t having it, raising alarms about job losses and safety issues. Public opinion isn’t exactly on board either: a Siena poll cited by the paper found skepticism runs deep.
Alphabet’s Waymo has been running tests on New York City streets with a trained specialist in the driver’s seat, but under current rules, paid driverless rides remain off-limits. Unless regulators grant more time, its permit to operate in the city wraps up March 31, according to Reuters. Regulators are also taking a closer look at Waymo after U.S. agencies launched a probe into a collision last month in Santa Monica involving one of its vehicles, Reuters added.
An SEC filing revealed Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has put in to sell 32,500 Class C shares. The Pichai Family Foundation, meanwhile, is looking to unload 4,000 shares. Both sales are flagged as part of a Rule 10b5-1 plan—a setup that allows insiders to offload stock over time, according to the filings.
Alphabet is pushing its AI expansion story, too. Speaking at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi—comments posted Thursday on Google’s blog—Pichai said Google will set up a “full-stack AI hub” in Visakhapatnam. That move comes as part of a $15 billion infrastructure bet on India. “No technology has me dreaming bigger than AI,” he told the audience. Blog
Developers eyeing updates from Google won’t have to wait long. According to the company’s developer blog, Google I/O is set for May 19–20, and the agenda looks packed: Gemini model updates, fresh developer tools, and product demos are all on deck.
Waymo faces a packed slate of competitors on this front. Tesla continues to advance its autonomous push, and Amazon’s Zoox, along with several other players, are still running pilots in states with looser rules. But no matter who’s driving, everyone runs up against the same walls: safety incidents, insurance headaches, and local regulations.
The risk is straightforward here: a fresh wave of freezes or stricter regulations from states and cities after recent accidents would force Waymo to push its timeline out again. That could leave Alphabet’s “other bets” division soaking up costs for even longer, right when Wall Street’s patience is already wearing thin over AI investments.
Next up for traders: Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures report, the inflation metric the Fed relies on most. They’re looking for anything in the data that could sway rate forecasts. Also on the radar: whether New York will renew Waymo’s testing permit, with the March 31 deadline coming up.
