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The deal includes a pre-arranged $10 billion equity investment from Berkshire Hathaway
Today, Alphabet has announced it will raise $80 billion in equity, the company’s first stock offering in over 20 years.
The transaction includes a $30 billion underwritten stock offering, a $40 billion at-the-market share programme, and a $10 billion strategic investment from investment giant Berkshire Hathaway.
According to the filing, roughly half the proceeds will be used ‘for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures to scale AI infrastructure and global compute’. The rest will be used to meet tax obligations connected with the “vesting of employee equity awards”.
The document also notes the company’s predicted capex for the 2026 financial year to be $180–$190 billion, with expectations that 2027 capex will “significantly increase”.
The move represents a notable shift in strategy for Alphabet, which had only recently authorised a $70 billion share repurchase programme in April 2025. The issuing of new shares suggests that the company not only believes that the demand for connectivity and infrastructure will remain robust, but that ownership of the physical infrastructure that powers AI will be increasingly important.
Of course, Alphabet is not alone in seeking public funding for its AI infrastructure investments. SpaceX filed for an IPO late last month, claiming a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion largely based on a continued boom of AI integration in every aspect of our lives. Anthropic has now also followed suit, according to reports, with ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI expected to do likewise in the near future.
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