Alphabet, the parent company of Google, will replace Verizon in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P Global announced Tuesday. The change takes effect before the start of Monday's trading session.
According to CNBC, Alphabet's A shares, which trade under the ticker GOOGL, will take the spot in the 30-stock index. Shares of the online search giant rose about 1% after the bell Tuesday following the announcement.
Alphabet will join mega-cap tech peers Nvidia, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft in the blue-chip index. S&P Global said Alphabet's inclusion would bolster the Dow's exposure to themes like artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and advertising.
The company has been spending heavily on AI, raising $141 billion in debt and equity since October. Alphabet has been trying to prove that its vertically integrated AI stack can generate returns.
The timing of the announcement comes after a rough stretch for the stock. On Monday, Alphabet closed its worst day on the stock market in more than a year, underperforming both the Nasdaq and other tech mega-caps. Before that selloff, the company had come off highs from the spring, when Google had its best month on Wall Street since 2004. That came after Alphabet reported better-than-expected results driven by soaring cloud revenue.
Despite the recent volatility, Alphabet's A shares are up more than 10% in 2026. The stock is on track for its fourth straight winning year and seventh positive year of the last eight.
Verizon had represented just around one-half of a percentage point in the index because of its low share price, S&P Global said. The Dow is a price-weighted index, meaning each member stock is weighted based on its share price. A company with a higher price per share will have more sway over the index. With Alphabet's much higher share price, its influence on the index will be considerably larger than Verizon's was.
S&P Global also addressed a separate change to the index related to Honeywell International, which will remain in the Dow under its new name, Honeywell Technologies, following the completion of its spinoff of Honeywell Aerospace. However, the spun-off company will not be included in the index.
The move signals a broader shift in what the Dow represents. The index, long associated with traditional industrial and telecommunications companies, continues to tilt toward the technology sector. Verizon was one of the last remaining telecom representatives in the index. Its exit leaves the Dow with a significantly different profile than it had even five years ago, with AI-linked companies now commanding a growing share of its weight and direction.
Alphabet's entry into the Dow comes at a moment when the company faces pressure from investors to demonstrate that its heavy AI spending will translate into measurable financial returns. Cloud revenue has been a bright spot, but the stock's recent drop shows that confidence among investors is not uniform.
