Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the 15 AI Stocks Analysts Are Watching: Microsoft, Nvidia, and More.
One of the leading AI stocks analysts are watching, analysts at Citizens have recently flagged Alphabet over renewed concerns related to the company’s ability to retain top AI talent
On June 22, Citizens analyst Andrew Boone reiterated a Market Outperform rating on the stock with a $515.00 price target. Even though Citizens reiterated a positive rating, its commentary is solely focused on the risk associated with talent leaving for competitors. The firm noted how former Character.ai founder and current VP of Engineer at Google, Noam Shazeer, is leaving Alphabet to join OpenAI.
The firm particularly highlighted how Alphabet had paid $2.7 billion to license Character.ai’s technology, giving them access to both the technology and team. However, Shazeer’s reported switch to OpenAI reflects how even such arrangements don’t necessarily guarantee an important employee’s stay over the longer term. Looking back, the bear case on Google from two to three years ago was that it would lose talent to OpenAI and Anthropic and would not be able to catch up in AI development.