Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bets $10 billion on Alphabet's AI infrastructure buildout

Alphabet is planning an $80 billion capital raise to expand its AI infrastructure. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is putting up $10 billion through a private placement. The rest breaks down into $30 billion in public share offerings and a $40 billion program for phased share sales starting in the third quarter of 2026. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are backing the offerings.

Alphabet says it needs the money mainly to scale its computing capacity for AI, citing "unprecedented customer demand." The company expects capital spending of $180 to $190 billion in 2026, with a significant jump planned for 2027.

In the first quarter of 2026, revenue grew 22 percent to nearly $110 billion. Google Cloud was the standout, up 63 percent. The cloud order backlog has nearly doubled to over $460 billion. Critics of these investments might note that OpenAI and Anthropic are driving most of the AI cloud boom, two startups that are still losing money.