If You Had Invested in Google Before Its IPO, You’d Have This Much Today
Written by
John Csiszar
Edited by
Amber Barkley
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
It might seem hard to believe, but one of the most popular and valuable companies in the world, Google, went public just 20 years ago, on Aug. 19, 2004. Now known as Alphabet, the company is the 6th-largest member of the S&P 500, with a market cap of over $2.45 trillion as of late January 2025, according to CNBC.
Â
Clearly, if you had been lucky enough to pick up some shares at the company’s IPO price, you would have pocketed a tidy profit over the last 20 years. But just how much money could Google have made you, and how did it perform relative to some other popular stocks?
Also, find out which stocks you should invest in with your tax refund this year.
Google’s Adjusted IPO Price
Google went public at a price of $85 per share. It opened its first day of trading at $100 and closed at $100.34, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, due to stock splits over the years, the true, adjusted IPO price as of 2025 is just $2.13 per share.
Google’s Current Price
As of the close of business on Jan. 24, 2025 — about 20 years and 5 months after Google went public — its share price was $200.21.
How Much Money You’d Have If You Invested in Google
On the surface, it would seem as if you only earned about 235% on your investment in Google if you paid the $85 IPO price. But as seen above, due to numerous splits, Google’s adjusted IPO price of $2.13 is more appropriate.
Under this measure, your investment in Google has actually grown from $2.13 to $200.21, which is a gain of closer to 930%.
If you invested $10,000 at Google’s IPO price, you’d have closer to $103,000, a gain of more than 10 times your original investment.
How Has Google Performed Compared With the S&P 500?
The S&P 500 has put up impressive numbers over the past 20 years, returning roughly 400% to investors over that time period. That would have turned $10,000 into about $50,000. Certainly, not a bad performance, but less than half of what you would have earned by keeping your money in Google.
Has Google Kept Up With the Best-Performing Stocks Over the Past 20 Years?
According to Visual Capitalist, Google’s impressive gain, while roughly 2.5 times that of the S&P 500, wasn’t enough to put it among the best performers from 2005-2025. The top dog on that list is Nvidia (NVDA), with an incredible 92,790% return. Here’s the list of the seven next-best performers over that time period:
- Netflix (NFLX): 54,258%
- Texas Pacific Land (TPL): 30,461%
- Apple (AAPL): 22,923%
- Booking.com (BKNG): 21,694%
- Monster Energy (MNST): 15,439%
- Intuitive Surgical (ISRG): 13,889%
- Amazon (AMZN): 10,577%
Even though Google didn’t make this illustrious list, investors that have held on since the IPO are likely very happy with their near-1,000% return in just 20 years.
More From GOBankingRates
