Google is under attack. Alphabet stock will still emerge a winner.

Alphabet shareholders have every right to be worried. This past week, the U.S. government hit Google -- and hit it hard -- when it put forward remedies to break Google's hold on search, which included selling its Chrome browser and monitoring data, causing the stock to fall 4.7%, to $167.63, on Thursday. The action comes as investors were already fretting about the rise of generative artificial intelligence -- computers capable of answering complex questions in, mostly, plain language -- which have created an opening for competitors like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft in a way that Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo never could. Not only can they siphon users away from Google, but the search for answers instead of links also could be devastating for its advertising business. Without search and the ad dollars it produces, the mighty Alphabet collapses -- and so does its stock.