What's Next for Alphabet

Alphabet had a changing of the guard Tuesday when cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down from their management roles. So what's next for the holding company?

As of Q3, Alphabet's "Other Bets" had lost nearly $2.8 billion in 2019. Google's booming ad business is the financial lifeline for these capital-intensive moonshots, which range from life extension research to internet-beaming balloons. Waymo, the autonomous car unit, has the most speculative value (Morgan Stanley says $105 billion) but also probably the highest cash burn rate.

The chosen one

In 2004, Sundar Pichai started climbing Google's ranks, and in 2015, he reached the top. Now, he's the top of the top. Many have speculated: Given his Google background, will Pichai deprioritize Other Bets spending?

• Note: Page and Brin, who led the creation of Alphabet in 2015, still have board seats and supervoting powers.

What's next: A big question mark. Signs point to Google integrating Alphabet projects more quickly. The company's been steadily absorbing parts of DeepMind, an advanced AI lab it acquired in 2014. That includes DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, who announced yesterday he's joining Google's AI team.