New York, Feb 27, 2026, 10:44 (EST) — Regular session
- Alphabet Class C shares edged up roughly 0.6% to $308.83 after ending Thursday’s session down 1.9%.
- Google got the green light from South Korea to export high-precision map data, but the approval comes with tough security rules.
- Belgium has launched an antitrust investigation into how Google sets prices for its online ads.
Alphabet’s Class C shares (GOOG) gained 0.55% to $308.83 as of 10:44 a.m. EST on Friday, clawing back a portion of Thursday’s 1.88% drop. 1
U.S. tech shares are back in the hot seat. Wall Street’s major indexes slipped at the open Friday, traders spooked by “AI anxiety” and fresh inflation numbers running higher than forecasts. The Nasdaq, according to Reuters, is on track for its sharpest monthly slide since March 2025. 2
Google picked up a win in Asia after South Korea gave the green light for the company to export high-precision map data to servers abroad. The decision, a sharp break from the country’s position over the past 20 years, comes with strings attached: Google must process the map data on servers inside South Korea, blur sensitive locations, and limit certain coordinates. “We welcome today’s decision,” said Cris Turner, Google Vice President. 3
There’s also the ongoing question of Google’s ability to leverage its own hardware for cloud earnings. Meta Platforms (META) has reportedly inked a multi-billion dollar, multi-year agreement to lease Google’s Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, for AI model development, according to The Information. That puts Google’s chips in more direct competition with Nvidia’s leading GPUs. 4
Shares climbed even as fresh regulatory scrutiny emerged in Europe. Belgium’s competition authority announced it has launched a preliminary probe into Google’s online ad sales, citing “serious indications” that the company’s ad-selling structure might violate antitrust laws. The investigation is still in its early stages, so the result remains uncertain. 5
Alphabet is tightening the focus on its experimental ventures. Intrinsic, the robotics software unit once categorized as an Alphabet “Other Bet,” announced it’s now part of Google, working on “physical AI” solutions aimed at industrial clients. “Combined with Google’s AI and infrastructure, we’re going to unlock the promise of physical AI,” said Intrinsic CEO Wendy Tan White. 6
Alphabet knows this dance: advertising faces tighter oversight, AI investments keep climbing, and with growth names getting less slack as rate expectations shift, the stock doesn’t get a pass. January’s U.S. producer prices popped 0.5%, running hotter than forecast—potentially pushing up the Fed’s favored inflation metric before the PCE data lands March 13. 7
Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi is set to take the stage at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference on March 3, scheduled for 3:20 p.m. Eastern, according to the company. Traders are watching for any new details on AI returns and capital spending. 8
