I added my second Magnificent Seven stock this week: Alphabet, the company behind Google, YouTube, and a growing cloud and AI business. GOOGL shares, bought on Trading 212.
Alphabet is one of those companies that feels almost too obvious. Google Search still dominates — it processes billions of queries a day and the advertising revenue that comes with that is staggering. YouTube is the world's second-largest search engine and the biggest video platform on the planet. Google Cloud is growing fast and actually turning a profit now. And then there's the AI side — DeepMind, Gemini, the custom TPU chips. Alphabet has been investing in AI for over a decade, long before it was fashionable.
So why a small position? Because 'too obvious' can be dangerous. Alphabet faces real risks: antitrust pressure on both sides of the Atlantic, the possibility that AI chatbots eat into search traffic, and the general volatility that comes with any tech stock. The valuation isn't crazy — the price-to-earnings ratio is reasonable by big tech standards — but it's not bargain-basement either.
I bought through Trading 212 using fractional shares. Alphabet trades at a high share price, so fractional shares let me own a slice without committing a large sum. It's one of the features that makes platforms like Trading 212 so useful for ordinary investors building a portfolio gradually.
Between Meta and Alphabet, I now have small positions in two of the Magnificent Seven. My ETFs already give me plenty of exposure to all of them — the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 are heavy with big tech — so these individual positions are more about engagement than allocation. They keep me reading, keep me learning, keep me interested. But they're small enough that if either drops significantly, it won't move the needle on my overall portfolio.
As always: this is what I did with my own money. Not a recommendation. Do your own research. All investing carries risk. Alphabet is a single stock — it's far riskier than a diversified ETF, and its price can be volatile.