Alphabet to raise $80bn from share sales to fund AI spending splurge – business live
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Here's the details of Alphabet's $80bn equity raise:
Concurrent underwritten offerings: $30 billion underwritten public offerings, consisting of: $15 billion in depositary shares representing mandatory convertible preferred stock; and $15 billion in Class A Common Stock and Class C Capital Stock; and
At-the-market offering: $40 billion at-the-market, or ATM, offering program for Class A Common Stock and Class C Capital Stock over time, expected to begin in Q3 2026.
Alphabet's $80 billion equity raise is a clear sign that the AI arms race is moving into a more capital-hungry phase, but the structure matters. It's certainly a huge chunk of money to be raising, but the devil's in the details on this.
The full $80 billion is less than 2% of Alphabet's mammoth $4.6 trillion market cap, and around half of the total is an initial raise, with a $30 billion offering alongside the $10 billion from Berkshire Hathaway.
The AI race is no longer being funded solely by venture capitalists willing to lose money for a decade in exchange for a shot at changing the world. The financing is becoming increasingly institutionalized. Just yesterday, Alphabet announced plans to raise $80 billion to fund its AI ambitions - one of the biggest stock deals in history - including a $10 billion investment from Berkshire Hathaway.
This means that AI is increasingly becoming a financing story as well. And the deeper traditional finance gets involved, the more the AI story shifts from a technology narrative toward a financing and credit narrative.
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