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Market Data Table

Breakfast News: Alphabet and Blackstone Team Up

May 19, 2026

Monday's Markets
S&P 500 7,403 (-0.07%)
Nasdaq 26,091 (-0.51%)
Dow 49,686 (+0.32%)
Bitcoin $76,955 (-1.54%)

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Chart comparing the stock performance of Alphabet and Blackstone to that of the S$P 500 over the past three years, with Alphabet up 212%, the S&P up 76%, and Blackstone up 38%.

1) GOOG and BX Push AI With New Company

The WSJ reports Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Blackstone (NYSE:BX) have announced the launch of a joint artificial intelligence (AI) venture, with Blackstone providing an initial $5 billion in equity investment, as Wall Street continues to deepen ties with the AI build-out race.

"This new company has enormous potential as it helps to meet the unprecedented demand for compute": Jon Gray, president and COO of Blackstone, explained that the tie-up will allow customers to access Google Cloud's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), alongside offering data center capacity and related operations.
Investment in AI's hard assets becomes increasingly appealing: As of the latest earnings, Blackstone has over $150 billion in data center assets, with Alphabet inking regular deals expanding infrastructure. The new company aims to bring 500 megawatts of capacity online by 2027, an amount similar to what is needed to power a midsize city.

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2) INTC Makes Progress on Foundry Business

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the manufacturing foundry business is gaining traction, being "one of the key national treasures," as it continues to emerge as a key component of the turnaround plan.

"The best practice is to see 7% or 8% yield improvement per month, and now I'm seeing it": Tan pointed out the improvements in the manufacturing process, with the yield (the percentage of usable chips from each wafer) now exceeding expectations.
"Tom believes that the market is completely missing the hidden value of Intel's manufacturing empire": Back in March, Fool contributing analyst Rachel Warren discussed the company with TMF co-founder Tom Gardner, noting "Tom expects the real driver of the stock to be the Intel Foundry business as it becomes a massive, high-margin revenue engine."

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3) Next Up: Earnings and Data to Show Consumer Health

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) rose around 1% ahead of the opening bell, with the Dividend Investor rec beating analyst expectations for quarterly revenue and earnings. CFO Richard McPhail said, "The homeowner in a relevant sense is perhaps more protected financially than other customer cohorts and so we continue to see engagement."
CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA) releases earnings after the market closes. After posting a mixed bag last quarter, investors will be hoping for better same-store sales with recent menu changes. The stock is outperforming the S&P 500 by 46% since the October 2023 Rule Breakers rec.
U.S. pending home sales set to indicate continued growth: April data due at 10 a.m. ET is expected to show a 1.5% month-over-month (MOM) increase, matching the impressive 1.5% MOM increase from March, showing resilience in both the housing market and the general consumer.

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4) Your Take

CAVA is up over 35% in 2026's AI-fueled market rally so far -- a better year-to-date performance than Alphabet can boast, for instance!

What other stocks have shot up considerably this year, which do you still believe can easily beat the market over three to five years from now, and why?

Debate with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying!

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