Oh how the turntables turn—the company solely responsible for saving my sorry tail in college did the one thing an irrelevant company does best: sue the culprit for all they are worth. In short, Chegg has officially filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google because their traffic plummeted 49% in January compared to last year. Bigly. As it turns out, having your entire business model summarized by an AI that occasionally tells people to eat rocks or put glue on pizza isn't great for shareholder value (read: penny stock vibes).

(Source: Giphy) 

Simply put, Chegg has just become the epitome of one of those rare moments when David actually picks up a stone and aims it at Goliath instead of just whining in the corner. They've filed in US District Court alleging Google's "AI Overviews" feature violates the Sherman Antitrust Act. Whereas because of this, CEO Nathan Schultz straight-up accused Google of stealing their content without paying a dime, which eerily feels similar to when my wife eats my clearly labeled leftovers and then has the audacity to complain about the taste.

What’s more is that contrary to popular belief, this lawsuit might have legs. Why? Well because Judge Amit Mehta already found Google guilty of having an illegal monopoly over online search last year. So really, Chegg isn’t walking into this fight completely unarmed. Their complaint specifically details how Google forces companies to provide content to be included in search results, then uses that same content to keep users on Google's platform. Classic tech giant behavior - build a platform everyone needs, then gradually strangle all the businesses that rely on it.

(Source: New York Post) 

And strangle them they have. For instance, Chegg’s valuation has crashed from $17 billion to $110 million since the start of the AI boom—losing more than $6.1 million on $143.5 million in revenue last quarter, down 24% year-over-year. Meanwhile, their subscriber count dropped 21% to 3.6 million students. Why? Well again, when ChatGPT answers your calculus questions for free, paying for Chegg makes as much sense as subscribing to a newspaper in 2025.

Naturally, the company is exploring "going private" because getting repeatedly punched in the face by market forces is less embarrassing when there's no public stock ticker attached to it. But the funniest part? Chegg has its own AI strategy using Meta's Llama, Anthropic and Mistral models, and even partnered with OpenAI. They're complaining about Google's AI while building their own. Which clearly means, their bold move isn’t paying off for them one bit.

(Source: CNBC) 

In the end, this lawsuit perfectly captures what's happening to content businesses in the AI era. Google built its empire by organizing the world's information. Now they're keeping all the traffic for themselves by putting AI summaries above organic search results. We spent years worrying about robots taking manufacturing jobs when the real first victims were companies that built their entire business answering homework questions. Didn't see that coming LOL.

Meaning, even if Chegg somehow wins this lawsuit years from now, they'll likely be long gone. The cruel reality is that if your entire business can be replaced by an AI summary, your days were always numbered. For now though, keep an eye on this story especially if you’re a Google investor. Shares are already down - 10% this month, and having another petty lawsuit thrown into the mix doesn’t help things.

In the meantime, place your bets accordingly, and as always–stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time… 

 P.S. My buddy Jared is sharp as hell—probably one of the smartest guys I know. But when it comes to investing? An absolute clown. Why? Because he doesn’t grasp the one thing that separates winners from losers in the market: information. And not just any information—I’m talking about the kind of intel that Wall Street hoards like the FBI hoards Hunter Biden's laptop—because the second retail traders get their hands on it, their edge starts to disappear.

Moral of the story here? Don’t be a Jared. Get access to the real market-moving data, the stuff hidden behind paywalls and institutional gatekeeping by joining Stocks.News premium. At the end of the day, the market isn’t playing fair—so why should you? 

Stocks.News holds positions in Google and Meta as mentioned in the article.