Could Investing $10,000 in Alphabet Today Make You a Millionaire?

If you had invested $10,000 in Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shortly after its IPO in 2004, your initial investment would be worth over $1 million today. Few corporations are capable of delivering such returns over just 22 years. That naturally leads to the following question: Can Alphabet pull it off again?

After all, when it first went public, the tech giant was worth a mere fraction of its current $4.2 trillion market cap, so it’s hard to see the company post similar returns from here on out. But there are also good arguments in favor of Alphabet once again crushing the market over the next two decades.

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A vote of confidence from the Oracle of Omaha

In the third quarter of 2025, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKA) (NYSE:BRKB) initiated a position in Alphabet. It has since expanded its stake by purchasing additional shares in the tech leader. Why is this relevant to our analysis of the company? As it turns out, Warren Buffett himself was behind the original decision to buy Alphabet's shares.

Buffett is known for his long-term investing philosophy. He has famously said that his favorite holding period is "forever." Berkshire Hathaway buying Alphabet's shares under Buffett's orders -- and buying even more afterward, to the point where the tech giant is now among Berkshire's five largest holdings -- tells us what one of the most successful investors on planet earth thinks about Alphabet's long-term prospects.

Multiple growth drivers

Of course, Buffett can be wrong. Anyone can be. Investors need to do their own due diligence and examine Alphabet's business. Once we do that, it becomes even clearer that Alphabet boasts wonderful prospects, at least in my view. First, consider the company's core advertising segment.

This is a mature business that no longer generates the kinds of top-line growth it once did, but Alphabet remains one of the largest companies in digital advertising and boasts a wide moat from multiple sources, including network effects and switching costs. Further, artificial intelligence (AI) has arguably strengthened Alphabet's advertising business, despite some people thinking that its search engine, Google, could be displaced by AI chatbots.

Nothing of the sort happened. Alphabet introduced AI overviews and AI mode and was able to keep its search empire intact. The digital ads industry is projected to continue growing at a good clip, and Alphabet could capitalize on this. Then there is Alphabet's cloud computing business.

Although it doesn't have the largest market share in cloud computing, Alphabet's Google Cloud is particularly strong in the AI niche, which has helped the company perform extremely well, with cloud sales accelerating significantly in recent quarters. Here, too, there is a growing opportunity that Alphabet could tap into over the long run. The company has other attractive growth avenues, too.

It is one of the leaders in streaming, for instance, an industry that should also make significant progress over the next couple of decades, as viewers continue cutting the cord. Elsewhere, Alphabet continues to ramp up its self-driving vehicle business, Waymo. According to some reports, it has reached $350 million in annual recurring revenue.

That's a minuscule portion of Alphabet's total revenue, but if self-driving cars continue to gain traction, we could see Waymo contributing meaningfully to Alphabet's financial results within the next couple of decades. It might not get there, but Alphabet generates significant earnings and cash flow and can pounce on other lucrative growth opportunities.

Adjust your expectations

There are risks to consider before investing in Alphabet, including legal and regulatory ones. The company has been the subject of antitrust litigation, for instance. Beyond that, Alphabet is spending heavily on its AI build-out, and if AI monetization falls short of expectations, it could see slower revenue growth and tighter profit margins. That said, even with these caveats, I expect Alphabet to generate above-average returns over the long run. But could it turn $10,000 into more than $1 million over the next 22 years? Probably not.

That would give the company a market value of roughly $420 trillion, significantly more than the U.S. GDP. Investors shouldn't expect returns of this magnitude, but the stock is still worth holding for the long term.

Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Alphabet and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.