Alphabet Rally Poised To Resume As Stock Gains Premarket — China News Sparks Upside

China’s antitrust agency, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SMAR), has reportedly decided to drop a case it brought against Google in February.
 General view of the Google headquarters in King's Cross as the tech giant faces a 5 billion pound lawsuit in the UK for allegedly abusing its online search dominance.
General view of the Google headquarters in King's Cross as the tech giant faces a 5 billion pound lawsuit in the UK for allegedly abusing its online search dominance. (Photo by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Shanthi M·Stocktwits
Published Sep 18, 2025   |   4:40 AM GMT-04
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Alphabet, Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG) stock rose by over 1% in the early premarket session on Thursday, following the cooling of a three-day rally in the previous session.

The move came after a Financial Times report stated that China was ending its antitrust probe against the Sundar Pichai-led company, according to Reuters. The development is seen as a tactical move by China to redirect all regulatory focus on artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia, using the company as a bargaining chip in its trade talks with the U.S. It is also seen as Beijing underscoring its flexibility to the U.S. amid several unresolved issues, especially on the trade front.

After President Donald Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs in early April, with China slapped with hefty levies, the two sides have had four rounds of high-level delegation talks. The most recent one, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, was held in Madrid, the Spanish capital. Although details of the trade talks were not divulged, the two sides reached a framework agreement to switch TikTok to U.S.-controlled ownership. 

The FT report also said the Chinese antitrust agency, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SMAR), has decided to drop a case it brought against Google in February. Incidentally, the SAMR said earlier this week that it initiated a probe against Nvidia regarding the company’s 2019 Mellanox Technologies acquisition. 

A separate FT report said Wednesday that China has imposed a sweeping prohibition on domestic tech companies buying the Jensen Huang-led company’s AI chips.

Alphabet, meanwhile, benefited from a recent antitrust ruling in the U.S. that allowed the company to keep its Chrome browser and Android operating system and to continue its Google Search deal with companies such as Apple. Earlier this week, the company reached the $3 trillion market capitalization milestone for the first time, becoming the fourth most valuable corporation in the world.

Retail sentiment toward Alphabet’s Class A stock remained ‘neutral’ (50/100) as of early Thursday, and the message volume remained at ‘normal’ levels.

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GOOGL sentiment and message volume as of 4:30 a.m. ET, Sept. 18 | source: Stocktwits

GOOGL stock has gained 32.25% year-to-date.

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