Berkshire Hathaway to Invest $10 Billion in Alphabet as Part of $80 Billion Share Sale
Alphabet announced plans to raise up to $85 billion in new equity — its first stock offering since 2005 — to fund AI infrastructure, including a $10 billion anchor investment from Berkshire Hathaway. The raise comes as the company halted share buybacks entirely in Q1 2025 after averaging $14 billion per quarter in repurchases over the prior five years. The move signals that even the most cash-generative tech giants are stretching their balance sheets to keep pace with AI capital demands.
Alphabet's equity raise is structured across three tranches: $30 billion in underwritten public offerings of convertible preferred stock and common stock, $40 billion through an at-the-market program expected to begin in Q3, and $10 billion from Berkshire Hathaway via a private placement. The offering marks a significant strategic shift — Alphabet had not issued equity since 2005 and had been one of the most aggressive share repurchasers among large-cap US companies. The dilution, estimated at 1–3% depending on final terms, was absorbed relatively calmly by markets, partly due to Berkshire's participation as an anchor investor. The raise is part of a broader pattern among major hyperscalers: Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon together doubled combined capital expenditures to $450 billion in 2025, with analysts projecting spending could exceed $700 billion this year and potentially reach $4 trillion by 2030 according to Morgan Stanley. Companies have progressively exhausted cheaper financing options — first using operating cash flow, then corporate debt (Alphabet notably issued a 100-year bond), then off-balance-sheet arrangements — before now turning to equity issuance, which finance professionals typically treat as a last resort due to profit dilution. Oracle has similarly announced plans to raise up to $25 billion in equity this year, and Amazon has signaled it may follow suit.
What's missing
Neither source specifies what financial return thresholds or timelines Alphabet has set to justify the equity raise, nor do they detail what specific AI infrastructure projects the capital will fund beyond general compute scaling. The long-term revenue projections that underpin the investment case for shareholders are not disclosed.
How coverage differed
Axios framed the raise as a strategic necessity driven by competitive AI pressures, emphasizing CEO Sundar Pichai's quote that under-investing is riskier than over-investing. Semafor took a more skeptical tone, highlighting that equity issuance is the most expensive and last-resort financing option, and framing shareholders as the ultimate risk-bearers subsidizing an uncertain AI buildout.
What different sources said
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