Buy This AI Stock to Own SpaceX Pre-IPO and Hold It Through the Robotaxi Boom

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) may be one of the most practical public-market ways to get indirect exposure to SpaceX before its IPO. But SpaceX is not the only or even the main reason to buy the stock.

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Alphabet already has a profitable artificial intelligence (AI) business, a rapidly scaling cloud platform, and one of the most advanced robotaxi operations in Waymo. SpaceX adds another layer of upside and further strengthens the company's long-term growth story.

Waymo has significant upside potential

Goldman Sachs expects the global robotaxi market to be worth nearly $415 billion in 2035, with the U.S. accounting for nearly $48 billion of that opportunity. This rapidly expanding robotaxi opportunity may be one of the crucial reasons to hold Alphabet over the long term.

Alphabet's Waymo is no longer just an experimental autonomous-driving project inside the company's Other Bets segment. In February 2026, Waymo raised $16 billion at a valuation of $126 billion, nearly triple its reported $45 billion valuation in 2024. That gives investors a better sense of how valuable Waymo could become for Alphabet.

Waymo completed 15 million rides in 2025 and provided more than 400,000 rides per week across six major U.S. metro areas in February 2026. However, in April 2026, Alphabet reported that Waymo had surpassed 500,000 fully autonomous rides per week. This scale is important because the robotaxi business does not rely only on strong autonomous-driving software. Each new market also requires regulatory approvals, charging and parking infrastructure, service personnel, fleet operations, and rider trust. Waymo's growing ride volume and multi-city rollout suggest that it is focused on building these competitive advantages.

Alphabet is also preparing to scale this business. Waymo's Mesa, Arizona facility is expected to be capable of building tens of thousands of fully autonomous vehicles per year at full capacity. Waymo is also expanding its presence in more cities, including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. The company is also focused on entering more than 20 additional cities in 2026. Partnerships with Uber Technologies in Austin and Atlanta could also help Waymo reach more riders at a lower cost.

So, while Tesla has been dominating investor attention around autonomous driving, Waymo already has paid rides, external funding, city expansion, manufacturing capacity, and a growing commercial footprint. Waymo is one of the few robotaxi platforms with a visible operating scale today.

SpaceX strengthens the long-term case

Alphabet (then called Google) and Fidelity invested $1 billion in SpaceX in 2015, for a combined stake of just under 10%. Alphabet reportedly secured a roughly 7% stake for an investment of close to $900 million. However, the company's current SpaceX exposure appears to have been diluted over time. According to a filing submitted in Alaska, the stake was reportedly around 6.11% at the end of 2025. Bloomberg now estimates Alphabet's stake closer to 5% after SpaceX's merger with xAI.

If SpaceX lists at the expected $1.75 trillion valuation, Alphabet's stake could be worth nearly $87.5 billion. That alone may not boost Alphabet's share price, given the company's massive $4.5 trillion market capitalization. But it could improve the overall public sentiment toward Alphabet's broader investment portfolio.

Alphabet offers indirect exposure to SpaceX alongside a real robotaxi leader and a profitable core business. That makes the risk-reward more balanced than buying into a single high-profile IPO at a potentially aggressive valuation.

AI and Cloud remain the key growth catalysts

AI and cloud businesses remain Alphabet's major growth drivers. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending March 31, 2026), Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% year over year to $20 billion, driven by solid demand for enterprise AI solutions, enterprise AI infrastructure, and core Google Cloud Platform services. Google Cloud's operating income rose by nearly 203% year over year to roughly $6.6 billion. This shows that the segment is becoming a major profit contributor. Google Cloud's backlog also doubled quarter over quarter to $460 billion at the end of the first quarter, highlighting the company's impressive revenue visibility.

Alphabet is also working to monetize its AI capabilities through advertising, cloud infrastructure subscriptions, and enterprise and consumer tools. In the first quarter, revenue from Google Cloud products built on its generative AI models grew nearly 800% year over year. Paid monthly active users for Gemini Enterprise also grew 40% sequentially in the first quarter. Alphabet's AI stack also extends far beyond Gemini. The company's custom Tensor Processing Units, Axion CPUs, and Nvidia graphics processing units enable it to meet enterprise demand across infrastructure, models, platforms, tools, and AI agents.

However, an investment in Alphabet is not without risks. The company's massive AI capex will have to translate into durable revenue and profit growth. While Google Search remains profitable, AI-powered chatbots and changing user behavior could gradually erode its margins. The company is also exposed to regulatory pressures stemming from antitrust inquiries. Waymo may take years to become consistently profitable. Finally, SpaceX's rich IPO valuation could leave little room for further appreciation of Alphabet's stake.

Yet, Alphabet still offers an impressive risk-reward mix. Investors get exposure to the robotaxis, SpaceX, and AI opportunities within a company that already has a highly profitable core business. Alphabet is well-positioned as a balanced technology stock to own for the long run.

Manali Pradhan, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Goldman Sachs Group, Nvidia, Tesla, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.