Alphabet's SpaceX and Anthropic Stakes Drive a Record $112.1 Billion Quarterly Profit
Alphabet's Q2 2026 net income hit a record $112.1 billion as its SpaceX and Anthropic equity stakes generated a $98.0 billion investment gain.
Editor's Note ·
- Correction:
- The article states Alphabet's SpaceX stake was diluted to between 4.9% and 5.0% 'after new shares were issued in SpaceX's initial public offering.' The cited MediaPost report actually attributes that dilution to an earlier, separate event: SpaceX's February 2026 merger absorbing xAI, stating 'Equity dilution in SpaceX occurred in February 2026, when it completed a merger absorbing Musk's AI startup, xAI... This brought Google's effective equity share down to between 4.9% to 5.0% by the time of the public listing.' The 4.9%-5.0% figure is correct; the cause was the xAI merger, not new shares issued in the June 2026 IPO.
Overview
Alphabet’s equity stakes in SpaceX and Anthropic generated a $98.0 billion investment gain in the second quarter of 2026, helping push the company’s net income to a record $112.1 billion, according to MediaPost and Shacknews. The figures were disclosed in a footnote to Alphabet’s Q2 2026 earnings release and detailed further in the 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to MediaPost.
What We Know
- Record profit. Alphabet’s net income grew 298% year-over-year in the second quarter, totaling $112.1 billion, according to MediaPost. The investment gains accounted for $6.26 of the company’s $9.11 in earnings per share, MediaPost reports.
- Revenue. Alphabet reported $119.796 billion in revenue for the quarter, according to Shacknews.
- The investment gain. “Other income reflected a net gain of $98.0 billion, primarily the result of net unrealized gains on our equity securities,” Alphabet said in its earnings disclosure, as quoted by both MediaPost and Shacknews. That compares with $1.29 billion in “other investments” income Google reported in the prior year, according to Shacknews.
- SpaceX stake. The total fair market value of Alphabet’s investment in SpaceX was $94.0 billion as of June 30, 2026, reflecting an effective equity ownership of approximately 4.9%, according to MediaPost. Google owned about a 6% stake in SpaceX at the end of 2025; that share was diluted to between 4.9% and 5.0% after new shares were issued in SpaceX’s initial public offering, MediaPost reports.
- SpaceX’s IPO. SpaceX went public on June 12, 2026, at a valuation of $1.77 trillion, according to MediaPost — a debut that preceded SpaceX’s subsequent $60 billion all-stock acquisition of Cursor maker Anysphere, as The Machine Herald previously reported.
- Anthropic stake. Alphabet has committed to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, MediaPost reports. Anthropic’s private-market valuation jumped from $350 billion to $965 billion during the second quarter, according to MediaPost.
- Where the numbers came from. The SpaceX and Anthropic figures appear under the Non-Marketable and Equity Securities footnotes of Alphabet’s 10-Q filing with the SEC, MediaPost reports.
What We Don’t Know
- Neither cited report breaks down how much of the $98.0 billion gain is attributable to SpaceX versus Anthropic individually.
- The terms of Alphabet’s $40 billion Anthropic commitment, including its cash-versus-infrastructure split and payout timeline, are not detailed in the cited coverage.
- Neither source specifies whether, or to what extent, Alphabet’s SpaceX shares are subject to post-IPO trading restrictions.
Analysis
The scale of the gain underscores how much of Alphabet’s headline profit growth this quarter came from paper wealth rather than operating performance. A 298% jump in net income sounds like a straightforward business story, but by Alphabet’s own account roughly $98 billion of the underlying “other income” came from marking two private stakes — SpaceX and Anthropic — to their new, dramatically higher market values rather than from selling ads or cloud services. Alphabet’s own SpaceX position illustrates the mechanics well: the company’s percentage ownership actually fell, from roughly 6% to about 4.9%, as SpaceX issued new shares in its IPO, yet the dollar value of that smaller stake still landed at $94.0 billion because the IPO priced SpaceX so far above where Alphabet’s shares were previously carried. The same dynamic applies to Anthropic, whose private valuation nearly tripled in a single quarter. Both gains are unrealized — Alphabet has not sold these shares — meaning the $112.1 billion net income figure reflects an accounting mark rather than cash in hand.