Alphabet's Stake in SpaceX Just Swelled to $94.1 Billion, and Its Position in Anthropic Is Worth Even More

Source Motley_fool

Key Points

  • Although investors have been focused on Alphabet's aggressive spending on artificial intelligence (AI), it's the company's investment portfolio that should be turning heads.

  • Google's initial investment in SpaceX has grown by more than 100X since January 2015.

  • Meanwhile, Alphabet's double-digit percentage stake in Anthropic, the developer of the Claude large language model, continues to expand.

  • 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet ›

July 22 was a pivotal day for Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG). It marked the first time in its storied history as a public company that it generated negative free cash flow -- an indication that management is spending aggressively on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure expansion.

But there's a lot more to Alphabet than just cloud infrastructure services platform Google Cloud and the company's integration of generative AI and large language model capabilities. Alphabet has evolved into one of Wall Street's savviest investors, and the company's second-quarter 10-Q filing with regulators fully or partially spilled the beans on how much its stakes in Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) (NASDAQ: SPCX) and AI start-up Anthropic are now worth.

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A smartphone displaying the Google logo set atop paperwork displaying several rows of the Google brand name.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet's stake in SpaceX has ballooned to $94.1 billion

Google initially invested $900 million into Elon Musk's space and AI conglomerate in January 2015, when SpaceX was valued at roughly $12 billion. Although this 7.5% initial stake has been diluted a bit over the years, Alphabet's stake in SpaceX remains sizable.

In Alphabet's June-ended quarter, the 10-Q notes that $80 billion of its stake is subject to early release sale restrictions, while the remaining $14.1 billion is to abide by long-term restrictions through the third quarter of 2027. In other words, this $900 million initial investment is now worth a cool $94.1 billion.

Alphabet may have the opportunity to begin ringing the register in a little over a week.

Whereas most newly public companies prohibit insider selling for the first 180 calendar days after an initial public offering, SpaceX has implemented a staggered and accelerated unlock schedule. Beginning two trading days after the company's first quarterly report on Aug. 4, early release-eligible insiders, including Alphabet, can start cashing in their chips.

A person reading a response on a computer monitor to a prompt from a large language model.

Image source: Getty Images.

Google's stake in Anthropic may be approaching $124 billion

In addition to outlining how much Google's longtime stake in SpaceX is worth, Alphabet's 10-Q also highlights the massive scale of its stake in Anthropic, the developer of the Claude large language model.

As of June 30, the carrying value of Alphabet's non-marketable equity securities in private companies was $124.3 billion. Bloomberg suggests that the overwhelming majority of this market value traces back to Google's stake in Anthropic.

Google has made several investments in Anthropic, starting with a 10% stake that cost $300 million in April 2023. This was followed up by another $2 billion investment, with $500 million upfront, in October 2023. More recently, in April 2026, Alphabet pledged $40 billion in add-on investments, with $10 billion upfront and the remainder dependent on performance milestones.

Having watched SpaceX and SK Hynix recently debut at $1 trillion-plus valuations, it's not out of the question that Anthropic adds that extra zero if and when it chooses to go public. If that happens, Alphabet will have cemented itself as a truly legendary investor.

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Sean Williams has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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