Alphabet has accelerated financing via bonds and a planned equity raise to fund
AI infrastructure. Key moves: Feb — multi-currency bond issuance including a
rare 100‑year sterling bond, a heavily subscribed $20bn US‑dollar deal, and a
Swiss franc issue; May — €9bn and C$8.5bn bonds (~$17bn) plus JPY 576.5bn
(~$3.6bn), a record for a non‑Japanese issuer; June — announced a planned $80bn
equity raise with a $10bn directed placement to Berkshire Hathaway. The company
had issued over $85bn of bonds in the prior year before the equity plan.
Drivers: management cites huge AI capex — FY2026 capex guidance of $180–190bn
and materially higher 2027 spending — that operating cash flow alone cannot
cover; a shift from light‑asset to capital‑intensive builds (data centers,
custom TPUs) requiring large upfront cash; and balance‑sheet management —
despite >$120bn cash, some is earmarked for employee tax liabilities and the
firm is preserving dividend/repurchase commitments and credit metrics, prompting
equity issuance. Financing profile and use of proceeds: maturities span 3 years
to 100 years, issuance across six major currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY et al.)
to reduce single‑market rate risk and lock long‑dated, low‑cost funding;
proceeds targeted almost entirely at AI infrastructure, data centers, TPU/GPU
clusters and Google Cloud expansion.
