Google slumps nearly 8%; analysts say Microsoft winning AI-linked PR battle
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Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares slumped nearly 8% after the tech giant showed off several artificial intelligence-linked updates to its products and services on Wednesday, but analysts said Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is winning the early PR battle between the two tech titans.
Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, who has an outperform rating and $120 per-share price target on Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), noted that the Satya Nadella-led Microsoft (MSFT) is "winning the early [generative] AI PR sprint" and that Google has "a lot more to lose than gain" if it rushes its products out the door.
On Monday, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) unveiled its Bard chatbot, a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT, for feedback, with a wider public release coming in short order as it steps up its general artificial intelligence offerings.
Google (GOOGL) demonstrated some of Bard's capabilities in a February 6 tweet, but it gave incorrect information when it said that the James Webb Telescope took the first pictures of planets outside the Solar System, known as exoplanets. The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992 and more than 5,000 have been discovered to date.
The James Webb Telescope launched on December 25, 2021.
Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney, who also rates Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) outperform, said the company's Wednesday event did not have much more than some incremental news, suggesting it was an early and perhaps "rushed" look at the generative AI capabilities the company has worked on for years.
Mahaney added that he expects more substantive releases and announcements later this year.
Earlier this week, Bank of America said the AI race is "clearly on for the tech sector," but Google's (GOOG) (GOOGL) speed to market is the key.