AMZN vs GOOGL: Amazon vs Google — AI, Cloud & Advertising Compared: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Amazon and Alphabet are both AI-native hyperscalers with dominant cloud and advertising businesses, but their emphasis differs: Amazon's core asset is AWS and a logistics/retail ecosystem, while Alphabet's core asset is the Google Search advertising franchise. Both are investing heavily in AI with Anthropic (Amazon) and Gemini/DeepMind (Alphabet) as respective differentiated approaches.
Use this AMZN vs GOOGL comparison to choose between the largest cloud provider and the dominant search advertising franchise. Amazon is more diversified across e-commerce, cloud, and ads; Alphabet offers higher advertising margin quality and potentially undervalued assets in Cloud, YouTube, and Waymo.
GOOGL holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. GOOGL leads on both 1-year return (+119.30%) and forward P/E (26.25x vs 27.44x for AMZN), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. GOOGL leads on both revenue growth (21.80%) and operating margin (36.12%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies similar upside for both: +15.58% for AMZN and +13.25% for GOOGL.
- →Want the largest cloud provider with the broadest enterprise infrastructure footprint
- →Value Amazon's diversification across e-commerce, cloud, advertising, and AI
- →Believe AWS's Anthropic partnership provides a differentiated AI model stack
- →See advertising as an underappreciated high-margin growth driver for Amazon
- →Want exposure to the highest-margin advertising franchise in technology
- →Believe Google Search will maintain its dominance despite AI-native search challenges
- →See Google Cloud and YouTube as undervalued relative to the advertising business
- →Value Waymo autonomous vehicle optionality as a potential long-term platform business
| Metric | AMZN | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|
| AI score | 61.4 | 66.2 |
| AI rank | #140 | #69 |
| Latest close | $246.03 | $368.53 |
| 1M return | -10.53% | -7.41% |
| 6M return | +7.39% | +16.03% |
| 1Y return | +18.72% | +119.30% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | AMZN | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.83K (+18.3%) started 2025-06-05 | $21.91K (+119.1%) started 2025-06-05 |
| 5Y ago | $15.39K (+53.9%) started 2021-06-07 | $30.98K (+209.8%) started 2021-06-07 |
| 10Y ago | $67.71K (+577.1%) started 2016-06-06 | $101.93K (+919.3%) started 2016-06-06 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | AMZN | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $2.91T | $4.61T |
| Trailing P/E | 31.65 | 28.99 |
| Forward P/E | 27.44 | 26.25 |
| Price/Sales | 3.49 | 5.88 |
| EV/Revenue | 4.04 | 10.83 |
| Analyst target | $312.79 | $430.72 |
| Target upside | +15.58% | +13.25% |
| Metric | AMZN | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth | 16.60% | 21.80% |
| Earnings growth | 74.80% | 82.00% |
| EPS growth | +74.80% | +82.00% |
| FCF margin | +1.32% | +6.61% |
| Operating margin | 13.14% | 36.12% |
| Profit margin | 12.22% | 37.92% |
| ROIC proxy | 24.29% | 38.88% |
| Return on equity | 24.29% | 38.88% |
| Dividend yield | N/A | 0.23% |
| Beta | 1.47 | 1.27 |
| Debt/equity | 53.30 | 20.03 |
| Current ratio | 1.18 | 1.92 |
| Quick ratio | 0.97 | 1.71 |
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | AMZN | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growth | +18.33% | +119.09% |
| CAGR | +18.36% | +119.33% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.56 | 2.68 | |
| Max drawdown | 21.74% | 20.42% | |
| Max daily drop | 8.27% | 3.86% | |
| Max wkly drop | 14.09% | 9.46% | |
| 5Y | Growth | +53.86% | +208.28% |
| CAGR | +9.01% | +25.28% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.29 | 0.73 | |
| Max drawdown | 56.15% | 44.32% | |
| Max daily drop | 14.05% | 9.51% | |
| Max wkly drop | 20.35% | 13.41% | |
| 10Y | Growth | +577.09% | +914.42% |
| CAGR | +21.08% | +26.08% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.61 | 0.79 | |
| Max drawdown | 56.15% | 44.32% | |
| Max daily drop | 14.05% | 11.63% | |
| Max wkly drop | 20.35% | 15.46% |
| Category | AMZN | GOOGL |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Amazon.com, Inc. | Alphabet Inc. |
| Sector | Consumer Cyclical | Communication Services |
| Industry | Internet Retail | Internet Content & Information |
| Core business | E-commerce marketplace and fulfilment, AWS cloud infrastructure, digital advertising, Prime subscription, and AI services (Alexa, Bedrock). Investing heavily in AI via Anthropic partnership and AWS AI infrastructure. | Search and advertising (Google Search, YouTube), cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud), consumer hardware, autonomous vehicles (Waymo), and AI research (DeepMind, Gemini). |
| Investor focus | AWS revenue growth and AI workload expansion, advertising revenue growth, retail operating leverage, Prime membership, and Anthropic partnership impact. | Search revenue resilience as AI shifts query behaviour, Google Cloud AI growth, Gemini model competitiveness, YouTube monetisation, and Waymo commercialisation. |
- →AWS is the largest public cloud by revenue with strong enterprise relationships and AI infrastructure investment
- →Advertising business is among the fastest-growing large-scale ad platforms globally
- →Retail Prime ecosystem creates durable consumer loyalty and high-margin advertising inventory
- →Google Search is the most profitable advertising channel in history with near-monopoly share
- →Google Cloud growing rapidly with competitive AI infrastructure and strong TPU capabilities
- →YouTube is the largest video platform globally with significant monetisation runway
- →AWS growth rate versus Azure and Google Cloud in AI workloads
- →Retail operating margins remain thin and capital-intensive
- →Antitrust scrutiny on marketplace practices and AWS competitive behaviour
- →AI-native search engines threatening Google's core query monetisation model
- →Antitrust exposure in Search, advertising tech, and app store distribution
- →Google Cloud revenue scale still significantly below AWS and Azure
Want deeper AI forecasts?
This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.