Buy these stocks as plays on Google’s big spending, analyst says

Melius Research suggests that while Google Cloud is expanding rapidly, investors seeking exposure to that growth might find more direct opportunities among the chip makers and networking providers that supply the infrastructure behind it. The reasoning is straightforward: cloud expansion depends on physical hardware—compute silicon, networking gear, and data-center components—and those suppliers capture spending regardless of which cloud platform ultimately wins the customer.

The distinction matters for how investors think about the theme. Google Cloud's growth reflects both demand for its services and heavy capital investment in capacity. Companies positioned earlier in that supply chain may see order activity tied to buildouts rather than to end-user adoption rates, which can make their results more sensitive to spending cycles—in both directions.

What to watch: Google's capital expenditure guidance and any commentary on data-center timelines, since supplier demand tends to follow those signals with a lag. Also worth monitoring is whether spending is concentrated among a few large vendors or spread more broadly, as that affects which parts of the supply chain benefit most. As always, single-analyst calls are one input among many, not a conclusion.