While extremely successful in recent years, Nvidia relies heavily on its GPU dominance and rapidly increasing AI spending by tech companies.
Alphabet has a more diversified revenue stream, including ads, cloud services, subscriptions, and hardware.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is currently the largest public company by market cap, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) isn't far behind in third (as of March 6). Each has benefited from the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), but Nvidia has been the bigger winner so far. Demand for its GPUs has driven 13 consecutive quarters of revenue growth.
Both are strong companies and should continue to do well going forward, but I expect Alphabet to deliver greater long-term growth.
Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »
Image source: Alphabet.
One of Alphabet's key advantages here is how diversified it is. Google Search is its biggest source of revenue, accounting for 55% of the $113.8 billion it made in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, Alphabet also made $17.7 billion from Google Cloud, $13.6 billion from Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices, and $11.4 billion from YouTube ads.
With several widely used products and services, Alphabet isn't overly reliant on any one business. It has also demonstrated its ability to pivot in response to technological changes to protect its competitive advantage. When AI chatbots appeared to threaten Google's search dominance, it added AI overviews to search results, which had more than 2 billion monthly users as of July 2025.
Nvidia's success primarily comes from its GPU dominance, with data center revenue accounting for 91% of sales in its most recent quarter. This leaves the chipmaker vulnerable to a few potential threats. Leading tech companies could dial back their AI infrastructure spending, which would impact Nvidia's sales. They could also buy from another chipmaker to avoid overreliance on Nvidia. We've seen an example of that recently, when Meta Platforms agreed to a GPU deal worth up to $100 billion with Advanced Micro Devices.
In fairness, Alphabet has its own risks, including a massive $175 billion to $185 billion in capital expenditures planned this year. But the company's more diversified approach makes it a safer investment choice, and over the next decade, Alphabet could be the bigger moneymaker than Nvidia.
Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $534,008!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,073!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 949% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 190% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of March 9, 2026.
Lyle Daly has positions in Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.