Alphabet Inc.

Alphabet has demonstrated substantial pricing power. Google’s ads business effectively acts like a tollbooth on consumer attention; advertisers can rotate budgets but they consistently allocate in huge volume because Google outperforms other channels.

Despite fierce competition, ad rates have remained healthy, and Alphabet’s scale allows it to set prices above smaller peers. As AlphaSpread observes, Alphabet’s broad dominance gives it “strong pricing power”. Google Cloud (GCP) also benefits from service differentiation (AI/ML capabilities) to charge premium rates.

High and steady operating margins (~30%+ in 2024) reflect this pricing power. In practice managers have kept prices competitive to grow share, but the optionality to raise prices is substantial (similar to how Verisign or unique infrastructure businesses can raise rates many-fold).

The bottom line: Alphabet’s profitable franchise suggests it could tolerate higher prices if needed, indicating strong underlying pricing power.