Google Loses $500B in Worst Day Since IPO
GOOGL share price change, 29 Oct
-12.6%
Market value erased
~$500 billion
Net income (Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025)
$26.2B vs $35.0B
Revenue (Q3 2026)
$127.6B (+25% YoY)
Revenue vs analyst estimate
-$0.6B miss
EPS adjusted vs estimate
$2.67 vs $3.02
Free cash flow
-$9.1B
Capital expenditure (Q3 2026)
$51.4B (+114% YoY)
Google Cloud revenue (Q3 2026)
$30.7B (+103% YoY)
What is known and what is not yet confirmed
Confirmed: Q3 revenue of $127.6B (LSEG consensus: $128.2B); EPS of $2.12 (consensus: $3.02); free cash flow of negative $9.1B (consensus: positive $2.7B); capex $51.4B; full-year capex guidance maintained at $195B–$205B. Google Search revenue $63.4B, about $1.6B below estimate. Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said AI Mode features carry "lower monetisation" and that foreign exchange was the "single largest driver" of the Search miss. An $8.2B unrealised loss on the SpaceX investment cut EPS by 55 cents. Not yet confirmed: whether AI Mode monetisation will recover once ad experiments roll out at scale; whether the search deceleration continues in Q4; the scale of 2027 capex (CFO Anat Ashkenazi said it will increase "significantly" but gave no figure); whether the SpaceX position has been reduced.
How this ranks among the biggest US market wipeouts
29 Oct 2026: Alphabet loses ~$500B in a single session — its worst day since going public in 2004, passing its previous one-day % record of 11.6% set during the March 2020 COVID selloff. By market cap erased, it is the second-largest single-day loss in US stock market history, trailing only Nvidia's ~$593B drop on 27 January 2025 after the DeepSeek model release. Alphabet's prior largest one-day dollar loss was roughly $275B in July 2026 on Q2 search slowdown concerns. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each saw roughly $30B wiped from their paper wealth on 29 October 2026.
"Our year-over-year query growth rate is the highest it has been in the last five years.
"Sundar Pichai — Alphabet CEO
What to watch next
- Amazon Q3 results (after-hours 29 Oct): shares fell ~10% in after-hours on a separate revenue miss.
- Google AI Mode ad expansion: Schindler said experiments are "showing promising results."
- Q4 2026 earnings call (est. late January 2027): CFO will provide 2027 capex figure.
- Alphabet full-year 2026 capex: $195B–$205B, roughly double the 2025 spending.
- Waymo expansion: now in 15 US cities; international rollout (Canada, Germany, Singapore, Spain) planned.
- SpaceX equity position: $8.2B unrealised loss in Q3; no announcement on whether stake will be sold.
Last updated 29 October 2026, 22:00 UTC. Earnings figures: Alphabet Q3 2026 press release (abc.xyz, primary source, released 20:05 UTC 28 Oct 2026) and SEC Form 8-K Ex99.1 (sec.gov, 28 Oct 2026). Stock price and market cap loss: BBC Business (bbc.co.uk, 21:52 UTC 29 Oct 2026) and NBC News (nbcnews.com, 19:06 UTC 29 Oct 2026). Analyst reactions and EPS context: CNBC (cnbc.com). CEO and CFO quotes: Alphabet Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool/fool.com). Comparison data (Nvidia Jan 2025):
