As we have discussed ad nauseam in the past years, perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding the entire AI supercycle, is where will the hyperscalers find the funds to pay for the trillions in projected capital spending now that most of their Free Cash Flow is flat or negative (with the exception of Microsoft).
And while many are forced to resort to aggressive debt issuance with Morgan Stanley estimating that credit markets will fund $1.5 trillion of global data center spending through 2028...
Source... or participating in murky rating-boosting SPV deals, which as we discussed recently indicate an unwillingness to exhibit AI related assets on their balance sheets something others are also catching up to...
Source... others opt to sell stock instead.
That's what Google parent Alphabet did after the close today when it announced it was raising $80 billion in equity offerings, including an investment deal with Berkshire Hathaway, to help fund its massive AI capex plans.
The offering includes a $40 billion so-called at-the-market (ATM) program, traditionally reserved for short-squeezed meme stocks selling directly to retail for which there is no clear institutional demand, to sell shares from time to time beginning in the third quarter, according to a statement Monday.
The company will also offer $30 billion in underwritten offerings of shares and mandatory convertible preferred stock, as well as a $10 billion private placement with Berkshire.
“AI is driving an expansionary moment for Alphabet,” the company said in the statement. “By scaling its investments, the company seeks to expand its foundational infrastructure to support the significant growth opportunity ahead.”
Alphabet intends to use the proceeds from the various offerings for "general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures to scale AI infrastructure and global compute." Remarkably, Google revealed that it will use the bulk of the ATM offering to pay for tax obligations related to vesting of employee equity awards. In other words, the multi-trillion company is using retail investors to pay taxes.
The mandatory convertible stock and the underwritten common equity offerings are expected to price Tuesday after the market closes in New York, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News.
Berkshire Hathaway started building a stake in Google’s parent last year, and held Class A and Class C shares collectively worth about $16.6 billion as of the end of March, according to regulatory filings. To incentivize Berkshire to invest alongside the ATM offering, Google agreed to sell $10 billion to Berkshire at a solid discount to its closing price of $376, namely a ~6% discount for the $5 billion Class A Common Stock, and an almost 8% discount for the $5 billion Class C offering at $348.20.
This is the second notable investment by Berkshire in just two days as the company starts to put its massive cash hoard to use.
Greg Abel, who took over the reins of the firm after Warren Buffett retired last year, has started to invest its record $397 billion cash pile. On Sunday, Berkshire announced its intention to buy home builder Taylor Morrison for $6.8 billion, providing a vote of confidence in the US housing market.
Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 18:45Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,
Google is seeking federal approval for a new program called "Debug" that would release up to 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida to combat disease-carrying mosquitoes already found in the wild.
A laboratory technician holds a mosquito at the World Mosquito Program factory in Medellín, Colombia, on June 4, 2024. Scientists have long released biologically modified mosquitoes to curb transmission of diseases such as chikungunya. Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP via Getty ImagesPitched as a program to "stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones," Google's Debug brings together a group of scientists and engineers to create technology to breed and release sterile mosquitoes to try to eliminate the ones that transmit diseases to animals and humans.
The Federal Register noted on May 1 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing Google's request for an experimental permit under section 5 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. Public comment on the permit request must be received by June 5.
Despite their small size, mosquitoes are considered the "deadliest animal" in the world, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are more than 3,700 types of mosquitoes worldwide, and some are more dangerous than others.
The species Google's Debug is targeting - Aedes aegypti - carries dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya. Some mosquitoes carry West Nile virus, malaria, and lymphatic filariasis, killing more humans than any other creature worldwide.
Malaria alone killed at least 597,000 people throughout 83 countries in 2023, the last year the data were available. That same year, the United States saw cases of "locally acquired" mosquito-transmitted malaria for the first time in two decades.
A "locally acquired" case of malaria means the victim was bitten by a mosquito carrying the parasite in the United States, rather than contracting the illness abroad while traveling.
There are roughly 2,000 cases of malaria reported in the United States every year, with most of them coming from people traveling overseas in places where malaria is rampant. West Nile virus is the leading culprit of mosquito-borne disease in the United States. More than 120 deaths are reported each year, with roughly 2,000 people experiencing the illness.
In Debug's landing page, Google notes that most mosquito-transmitted diseases lack effective vaccines or treatments.
"Attacking mosquitoes with pesticides is unsustainable because they're becoming less effective over time and can be toxic. Clearing standing water is not enough because people can never find all the places that mosquitoes breed," Google states on the project's website. "We need a new approach."
Google said it is using male mosquitoes carrying a naturally occurring bacterium, Wolbachia, that prevents them from reproducing with female mosquitoes in the wild. Since only female mosquitoes can bite and spread disease, the goal is to continually reduce the number of "bad mosquitoes" over time.
Google's technique "uses a naturally occurring bacteria and uses no chemicals, no toxins and doesn't involve genetic modification. Similar approaches have been used to safely combat other pests for decades," Google states. "We're combining the Debug team's scientific and engineering expertise with the help of international partners to raise and release lots of good bugs and stop bad mosquitoes that can spread disease."
Google said its Debug program has already completed multiple field trials with "promising results."
"Male mosquitoes don't bite, so residents within a trial area shouldn't notice any increase in nuisance biting mosquitoes," Google states on the project's FAQ page. "We expect to see a population decrease within weeks to months of the initial releases. The number of released male mosquitoes should also reduce over time as the neighborhood population decreases."
At least one lawmaker has criticized the company's approach.
In a May 31 post on X, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said:
This close-up photograph shows a mosquito in Montlouis-sur-Loire, central France, on Oct. 21, 2022. Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 18:25GoPro shares have been under pressure since last fall, when memory prices began to soar as AI data center buildouts tightened global supply and diverted capacity away from consumer electronics.
On Monday, GoPro filed an 8-K with the SEC, warning of "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a going concern and stating that it expects to file an update to its financial statements.
The action-camera maker, once a $12 billion-plus Wall Street MoMo darling after its 2014 IPO, has plunged into micro-cap territory, with a total market cap of around $190 million as of late Monday afternoon.
Revenue plunged 26% in the first quarter. The company has already needed lender waivers after breaching loan covenants, and it does not expect to comply with several future covenants.
Last month, GoPro's own filing warned of an "unprecedented increase and volatility in memory component costs."
The AI memory boom has crushed GoPro, and the market punished GoPro shares as early as last fall, when the memory price spike began.
Bloomberg noted that in April, one of GoPro's suppliers planned to reduce memory supply, which dented the company's forecasted sales. This only suggests higher input costs, weaker margins, and reduced pricing flexibility.
GoPro is seeking to pivot away from its consumer-camera market, exploring aerospace and defense as potential new markets and product categories.
By the way, it's easier just to wear Meta RayBans for action sports ...
Tyler Durden Mon, 06/01/2026 - 18:00