3 Stocks To Consider After Google's Favorable Anti-Trust Ruling

A federal judge's decision this week, allowing Google GOOG to maintain its Chrome browser and dominant search business, has Wall Street breathing a sigh of relief.

The ruling removes the near-term threat of a forced breakup and refocuses the fight for digital search dominance in the marketplace, and increasingly, in artificial intelligence.

Google and Apple AAPL, which host Google's Chrome on their smartphones, laptops, watches, and e-readers, look to be the primary beneficiaries.

But there are also some less obvious tech winners from this ruling.

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Google's legal journey was launched in October 2020, when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the company, alleging the technology giant had illegally monopolized internet search and online advertising markets.

The case wound its way to this week when Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google did not have to sell its widely used Chrome browser, a decision that left Google executives relieved. Mehta did order Google to share its proprietary data with industry competitors to boost digital search competition. (Google plans to appeal the ruling, which is expected to prolong the case into late 2026 or 2027.)

For now, however, the legal clouds have lifted, the litigating parties have exhaled, and the sun shines on new stock market opportunities.

"The forced divestiture of Chrome would naturally have been quite negative for Alphabet and the stock rallied as a result of the ruling," said Tom Hulick, chief executive officer at Strategy Asst Managers in Pasadena, Cal. "On a high level, any actual attempt to break up the large tech companies would be extremely negative for the stock market, given how enormous they are and how much they profit from their dominant competitive positions."

GOOG shares drifted upward in the days after the court’s ruling, while technology stocks generally moved in response to macroeconomic news, rather than antitrust news. "The striking thing is that markets didn’t react violently," said Steve Morris, founder and CEO of New York City-based NEWMEDIA.COM. "What happened was that the breakup risk that had been weighing down GOOG let up.”

Since the ruling, Google’s stock has risen as high as 8%, primarily as funds adjusted their positions in response to the lifting of that antitrust cloud. "Apple (AAPL) has been driven more by speculation about AI keynotes than regulatory issues," Morris said. "Smaller players like DuckDuckGo or Perplexity AI (which is still private) are completely in the dark, since there’s nothing for their stock price to do because they’re not public, but bigger partners like Microsoft (MSFT), who are now favored to win the Bing/OpenAI integration, can see a way now."

What Opportunities Open Up For Investors After The Ruling?

Some obvious stocks should benefit from the ruling, while others, less obvious, should also get a boost. Here are three stocks that should outperform as internet search legal wranglings are settled, at least for now.

Alphabet

Year-to-date return: 23.40%

With its search empire intact and its Gemini AI platform in expansion mode, Google’s parent company Alphabet GOOG remains a core holding for shareholders.

"We continue to like Google, which we own in two strategies," Hulick said. "Even if generative AI completely disrupts search, Gemini is one of the premier LLM's and Google has the resources to be extremely competitive in the AI race."

Google's cloud computing also continues to be extraordinarily strong, and the Google brand name is well established in the minds of almost everyone who uses the internet, Hulick added. "We think that their balance sheet, intellectual capital, & technology will enable them to adapt as the technology market evolves."

Microsoft

Year-to-date return: 19.47%

Microsoft MSFT isn't winning the browser war, but its AI deployment strategy is arguably ahead of Google's. Its integration of OpenAI's models into Office and Azure is sticky for enterprise users. Analysts have noted that even if Bing never dethrones Google, Copilot and Azure AI are growth levers for the company.

"MSFT also seems like a core beneficiary; even partial access to Google’s search corpus makes Bing and the OpenAI partnership better, for both search and in the other productivity verticals," Morris said. "After the court ruling, bigger platform partners like Microsoft (MSFT), who are now favored to win the Bing/OpenAI integration, can see a way forward now."

Nvidia

Year-to-date return: 25.20%

While not a direct search engine player, Nvidia NVDA is the foundational supplier of GPUs powering generative AI across Google, Microsoft, and nearly every major startup in the field.

"Nvidia (NVDA) is another stock that could benefit from a demand surge as an AI infrastructure leader," said Paul Holmes, senior analyst at New York City-based BrokerListings.com. "Yes, some stocks that benefit from the antitrust case are big names with impressive valuations that will lead many to think there's no room for more growth, but I disagree."

Expanded Competition Should Boost More Online Search Innovators

The Google antitrust ruling reinforced Google's dominance but also underscored the competitive runway in AI-driven search. For investors, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia are among the clearest beneficiaries (Apple could make a good case, too), all of whom are stable, cash-rich players positioned to lead or supply the next wave of online search innovation.

Even so, the court ruling significantly expands the digital search market, encouraging Google and other digital search companies to stay in the game and compete with their newfound rivals.

"Hell yes, new players should go for it," Morris said. "But the judge’s order to ‘go for it’ took two forms: outlawing pay-for-default for OEMs and browsers, and making Google share the search data with its rivals."

That's based on the premise that Google is now giving search-based and generative AI competitors access to Google’s data about what people want to ask, and indirectly, an up-to-the-minute index.

"Because the ruling described AI as a critical factor, the regulators are now thinking on Google’s AI clock, not their search clock," Morris added. "The only search that anyone will want to invest in going forward is vertical AI married to distribution."

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