Is Alphabet (Google) a Mutual Fund Now?

In an earlier post, I noted that Alphabet, along with other mega-cap companies like Meta and Amazon, is more like a conglomerate of many different companies than an individual stock.

Look at Alphabet's recent purchase of more SpaceX shares. Google invested $900 million in SpaceX back in 2015.

This quarter, Alphabet increased its holdings to 555 million shares of SpaceX, or about 7% of the company. At the end of September, those shares were worth $84 billion.

That's a big bite, but it isn't the only one. Alphabet also recently disclosed a $548 million investment in Qualcomm.

So when you buy Alphabet stock, you're not just buying into Google's many businesses. You're also indirectly investing in other publicly traded companies whose shares Alphabet owns.

That's kind of like a mutual fund.