u/Hug_LesBosons ·
Reddit — r/stocks
· May 04, 2026 at 15:58
· ⬆ 53 pts
· 💬 16 comments
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Summary
The post highlights that Google's record $62.58B net income was inflated by ~$15B in unrealized gains from its Anthropic investment, making the Q1 figure artificial.
The author's thesis is that this one-time boost will reverse in Q2, causing a sharp drop in reported net income and misleading investors about underlying profitability.
Quality assessment: Speculation grounded in a clear accounting observation (investment gains vs. operating income), but lacks deeper analysis of core business trends or market pricing.
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Google just finished a quarter with a net income of $62.58 billion. I've looked everywhere, and it's an all-time record.
But that's thanks to huge financial gains on stocks like Anthropic, which artificially inflate the figures. If they made $15 billion on their Anthropic stock that quarter, their net income seems enormous because there's a $15 billion gain from Anthropic alone.
But in reality, if their Anthropic stock only brings in $2 billion in the following quarter, their net income will suddenly drop by $13 billion.
So even though they have the record, we should expect a significant decrease in net income in Q2.
$15B of Google's record net income came from Anthropic stock gains, which are non-recurring and volatile. When Q2 reporting shows a $13B+ sequential drop in net income (assuming Anthropic gains normalize), the market may punish the stock for "disappointing" earnings. Short GOOGL ahead of Q2 earnings to profit from the expected negative surprise as the artificial boost fades. Core business could beat expectations and offset the investment gain reversal; the market may already discount the one-time nature; regulatory or AI breakthroughs could lift sentiment.
This Reddit post, published May 04, 2026,
features u/Hug_LesBosons
discussing GOOGL.
1 trade idea extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.